Life Like Latios
by TheModerator
Summary: "If Latios had a theme song, it would be trololol. Latias is more of a nyancat... Unintentionally Irritating". Life Like Latios takes you through the daily life of Alto Mare's legenderies, through the eyes of Latios, as well as his opinions on Relationships, Painting, Racing and more. Read the story people are calling "Amazing" and "Wonderfully Unique". Better than it sounds!
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own any of the rights to Pokémon (Nintendo), nor intend to project that impression. If I did, I'd be a lot richer :)

Don't judge the book based on the 1st chapter. I promise it gets better. Also, If you want a pokemon book cover making like mine, PM me. I 3D model them for free if you give a concept design :)

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**Life Like latios  
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**Chapter 1: A Short Introduction.**

_It was quiet in the garden. Not totally, mind, but quiet enough to hear the sound of breathing. The light of the sun, slightly unreal, started to coax its way through the tree leaves, eventually casting its rays on the odd couple laid there..._

I wake, slowly. Everything was as it was when I left it, albeit rotated 90°. To correct this, I tilt my head the right way up, seeing properly: to my left, a few trees, directly infront of me, a very nice looking pond/fountain combo and to my right, immediately next to me, my sister. She's a Latias, alright. Tail to snout about 1.7 Meters, wingspan 3 meters total, white neck, blue triangle on a red chest covered in feathers. She looks almost like me, but smaller, and red where I am otherwise blue. I'm also much bigger. She's laid on the grass, head on my right wing, ears drooped down over her neck, wings splayed out.

She looks happy. Not really happy. Just happy. Content.

Looking at the sky, I'd say its around 8 o'clock. Actually, its coming winter. Make it 9 o'clock. Bianca will be here in another half hour. Bianca - the most confusing person I've ever met, other than perhaps my sister. She doesn't go to school, even though she looks like a schoolgirl. Instead, she paints. Applies a brush or pencil to some paper (she calls it 'canvas') and paints pictures. If they don't look right she screws them up and yells a lot about how useless she is.  
I agree, not that I'd ever let her know. Painting IS useless, even when its good. What good is a 'Picasso' to anyone, except for possibly saying "I'm richer and more important than you, so take a seat and let me show you how poor you are in comparison"

My mental rant is cut short by a quaint sound from my right. Latias (Since there is only one of each of us, we call each other by our species) is rolling over, briefly freeing my wing from her underside. Briefly being the key word. Having rolled to be facing my wing instead of on top of it, she grabs it, probably thinking its some kind of stuffed toy like Bianca sometimes has.

I yelp, my seagull-like voice ripping through the previously calm air, startling Latias, and making her wake up and grab tighter, inflicting more pain. The thing about being part dragon (which most people forget) is that our claws are really, REALLY sharp. Think of a razor blade, Then make it 8 times sharper, Then surround that with razor blades and sharpen them with more razor blades. It's about 100 times less sharp than that. Bianca sometimes asks us to cut the canvas with them if her scissors are blunt. So it's no surprise that Latias has now managed to draw a substantial amount of blood from my wing, which is bleeding profusely.

Instantly she's up, confused: "Why are you bleeding? Why is their blood on my claw? Did I cut you? Are you all right?". All very dumb questions, given the circumstances. "What do you think?" Is my sarcastic reply, and sarcasm in dragon is really something. I attempt to grab my wing, but my arms are too short, and my wing is too rigid. It's not like a Pidgy wing which can flex round to the body - My wings only articulate at the body, meaning the cut which is on the end of my wing - roughly a meter away - is just out of reach of both my arms (on reflection this is a good thing, as all my claws would do is cut them more).

Latias, meanwhile, starts to hover, giggling the entire time, chuckling at the spectacle that is me trying to reach my wing. In the end, I give up, its starting to clot anyways. Latias looks at me, but I'm terrible with emotions and am confused as to what her face means. It looks like a mixture of worry and happiness, which conflicts so badly I give up and lay flat on the floor, whimpering. This gets the response I want from Latias, who darts off, presumably to fetch Bianca and a first aid kit.  
The garden is quiet again, the only sound being the wind chimes slowing to a stop after Latias flew past them.

I reflect upon my injury; At least my neck can rotate enough for me to see it. It looks quite deep, but not serious. Opposite to to popular belief, Lati wings are next to useless. We hover and propel ourselves with psychic, and the wings are only there the stabilize this process - so long as their both the same length, we can fly fine with them injured.

That is not to say they don't contain nerves. This fact comes to me as a stab of pain reverberates down my spine, making me whip my head back round, letting me see Bianca rushing towards me with a first aid kit. She looks concerned, which isn't normal. She generally looks angry or neutral. "Look at you!" she exclaims, in human speech, which I understand. I coo. Not any specific words, just make a noise that in her mind equates to "I'm hurt, help?". This prompts treatment. As much of a grump Bianca is, she cares about things. She swiftly dresses my wound in a waterproof bandage, feeds me some foul-tasting medication (Do the manufacturers even know what a pecha berry tastes like?) And then asks me to get up so she can check i'm fine. I comply, raising from my dry spot on the ground to around twice Bianca's height. She claps and squeaks, completely out of character.  
"Good, you're fine! Lets go for some food hmm?" And with that she skips off, up a flight of stairs and through a wide archway.

I'm perplexed by her behavior, Why is she so cheery? I decide to ignore this and concentrate on the important things, important things being "food". I rear up in flight, folding my arms so they slot into my body. I love this next bit. I almost immediately accelerate to 200mph, flying directly towards the archway. The air tugs at my ears and the end of my wings, making them vibrate. As I enter the archway, The air becomes harder to move through, due to the closed walls, enhancing the whole 'fly-fast' effect. In under a second I'm out the other side and in Bianca's garden. I fly up to slow down an avoid hitting the house, then glide in circles until i'm at the door.

Its closed. I try the handle, having to make two attempts, my claws not gripping it properly. Eventually the door is open and I try to glide through, but my wings yet again provide a set-back. In my haste to get in, I'd not pulled them all the way back, and so I was told wide to fit through. I sigh, and, fold them behind me and try again, with more success.

Over the threshold, things get slightly easier. The house has wide corridors and therefore plenty of turning room. I'm in the kitchen, where Bianca should be if she was making breakfast, but she's not. I hear her shout, from the living room. "Have you made it though the door yet?" she enquires, referring to the daily struggle I have with the back door. In response, I float into the living room and glare at her, prompting another giggle.

Latias (who is smaller than me and could fit through all the doors fine) is doing her party trick of not being Latias, but Bianca instead. The only difference is that the real Bianca is wearing a beret (Even indoors, another confusing thing). The real Bianca is sat on the sofa, apparently having a discussion with Latias, who is sat on the opposite sofa, with a laptop on her mock-human knee, using that to communicate in English with Bianca. That was my idea, though I never use it myself. We were watching a history documentary on TV and this scientist in a wheelchair rolled on to a stage and started lecturing, but the wheelchair spoke for him, albeit in a terribly robotic tone. That's where I got the idea of using the laptop to let us talk to people. We understand English, so we just type in what we want to say and the machine says it.

Right on cue, Latias taps out a question: "DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING ABOUT BREAKFAST, BIANCA?". Bianca looks at me, and I nod in confirmation. We both give her puppy-dog eyes. Bianca rolls her eyes, "Seriously, Do you guys only think about food?". Me and Latias both nod our heads rapidly, making Bianca sigh. "What kind, Pokemon or Human?" She asks us, as if that's a choice. She knows we prefer human food. Latias responds. "PANCAKES".

At that moment, Lorenzo appears through the doorway "Bianca dear! If you're putting some pancakes on make some for me too, hmm?". Suddenly, Bianca snaps and starts ranting at Lorenzo, which seems not only unprovoked but also a bit harsh on the 60-year-old - "WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO COOK? IN A NORMAL HOUSEHOLD THE OLDER PERSON LOOKS AFTER THE YOUNGER PERSON!". Lorenzo sighs, and tries to calm her down - "Bianca dearest, firstly, does this look like a normal household" and with that he waves his hand to me and Latias. "... Secondly" he continues "If anyone's the oldest here, its Latios.". There is silence.  
He's right. I AM the oldest, but only by about 100 years. I'm still a baby in legendary speak, though I don't know exactly when I was born. I was very young at the time, after all. The earliest thing I can remember is waking up in the garden, about half the size I am now.

"RIGHT" Bianca snaps. "Latios can make pancakes". I start, surely they'd realise this mistake. I can't even use the laptop (My claws just scratch everything and it breaks), or open a door. How on earth does she expect me to hold a frying pan? While I mull over how to present my objections, the others are staring at me. It's not worth trying to argue, since their all in favor of me cooking.

I sigh and float through to the moderately sized kitchen. As I'm leaving, Bianca speaks to me, her voice a lot calmer. "Latios? I've told Latias, but you were struggling with the door. After breakfast we're going to watch the Tour de Alto Mare"

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Hi all, what did you think to the intro to my first story? Imma' put some background info here for the confused among you.

This story is based on (more like a recollection of some hallucinations that were during) my own childhood experience - I had an operation when I was small, around the same time Pokemon Heroes was released. I'd reacted badly to the anesthetic and the net result was extreme confusion and vivid dreams, all based around pokemon, but chiefly, all from Latios's POV. Autism *apparently* didn't help, but they say that to everyone these days :)

As a result, the plot takes a while to form, this story concentrates more on what daily life is like for the legendary pokemon Latios than on a specific plot, but there IS one, even if it takes a while to emerge.

This is my first fanfic, so please don't be *too* harsh when you write your review. I'm writing this out and uploading on my phone in times of boredom (car/train journeys, hospital waiting rooms etc...), so expect updates to be at irregular intervals - I must also warn that I'm still slightly autistic, so words may be in the incorrect order or be slightly incorrect. If you do notice that PLEASE inform me in a review as I don't take it badly and it improves the quality a lot!

So, Chapter 1 Done, quite short, but this seems as good a place as any for a break. The next chapter is longer! Other than that i'm not sure what I think of it. In effect I'm writing down my memories, but I may start adding other things that weren't in my dreams. Perhaps a romance. Oo-la-laa.

Please read and review, Constructive Criticism is greatly appreciated. Until next time, Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2: Pancakes

Back again (Later than expected. I'd written out this chapter two days ago and have only just managed to load the page that lets me upload it. The internet here is terrible), and I'd like to say thanks to the people who reviewed, including (but not limited to)  
**LatiasFan1:** Your mere presence honors me, but you underestimate yourself. Anyone who writes a story with that many views and follows has got to be pushing all the right buttons!  
and** Dr. Phil e sophical**: Love the name! and thank you! I can do many styles, but I recon'd slow-and-detailed would be better since its about things none of us have experienced and therefore makes it more believable, so I'm glad you like it!

This chapter shows us what happens when Latios (baring in mind he's 2 meters tall, wingspan 4 meters) tries to cook, and also begins to introduce the 'plot' at the end, so hang tight!  
Anyway, on with the story!

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**Chapter 2: Pancakes**

I wander over to the hob. Four rings, 5 dials. One of those dials must be the oven. Arceus, this is confusing. Besides, I need to make the batter first anyway. At least I can remember this from when Bianca cooks. White powder in a bag from the cupboard on the left, a carton from the fridge, and a glass from the step. I go over to the cupboard, see the bag of white powder (Its labeled FLOUR) and place it on the counter. Easy. Now the 'milk', which a man puts on the front door step every morning. I fly to the front door, manipulate the handle with my psychic, and fly through with ease, as this door is wider than the back one. Sure enough, there is a glass bottle there. Its orange though, so its probably "gone off". Another bottle, this time its pure white. I get that one and fly back through the front door, into the kitchen and place the bottle with the flour. Bianca is stood watching with a camera. I lower my head so my eyes are looking directly at her, which is apparently intimidating. I think I've done it wrong, because she starts to laugh.

Now, the 'Eggs'. Their in a cardboard box (Bianca calls it a car-ton) in the fridge. I locate them, pick them up and place them on the counter.

A glass bowl is required for mixing, I think, as I observe the ingredients. Aside from a tear in the bag of FLOUR that my claws caused, I've done a remarkably good job of setting them out. I fetch the bowl from the side. Bianca normally puts each ingredient on this thing that tells her how much of each thing she's using, but even if I knew where that was, I wouldn't know how to use it, as its something to do with numbers and buttons.

So, now to make the batter. The bowl looks big enough for the entire bag of FLOUR, so I delicately pick it up with the flat of my paw (I think the human equivalent is a 'Palm') and place it in the bowl. Bianca smirks, with reason. I now have a bag of FLOUR in a bowl. My claws would never be able to open the packet, So I plan on cutting the bag open WHILE ITS IN the bowl, and letting the insides fall out into the bowl. Bianca is still smirking, so I decide to do this as violently as possible, and unleash a fury swipes attack on the bag.

The air is instantly filled with the powder, making Bianca burst out laughing and coughing simultaneously. I want to cut her short with "your tidying this" but its not really that important.  
After a minute, the cloud settles on every possible surface, so at least I can see now.

I think the next thing is eggs, but it probably doesn't matter what order they go in the bowl. Their is something special about the eggs though. Apparently people don't like to eat the outside of the egg. So you have to crack them and keep the shell in you hand whilst the insides dribble out. This is too difficult for someone with no opposable thumbs, so I'll have to improvise. I spy the bowl with holes in it. So does Bianca. "What are you using the colinder for?" she asks, as I take the 'colinder' over to the counter. Without response, I drop the larger colinder over the smaller bowl with flour in, before dropping the egg in it. "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU CRACK AN EGG!" Bianca shrieks, still holding the camera in a filming position. This outburst seems a bit premature, as the egg has been successfully cracked, the inside running through the holes, while most of the shell stays in the bowl-with-holes. For some reason, I think I need more than one egg. I grab another one in my 'palm', and drop it in to the 'colinder'. I look at the result, which looks like there is still too much flour. I repeat the thing with the eggs twice more. 4 eggs. That seems about right.

Finally, 'Milk'. I splash half the bottle in through the colinder, washing the remainder of the egg internals through the holes.

Now I have to mix them together. My claws won't grip around the whisk. The mixer is electronic and I don't think i'd be able or even allowed to use it, for some reason. So, I'll have to agitate the mixture, without any tools to do it with. After a brief moments consideration, an idea. I find a lid, clip it over the bowl and head outside. Before Bianca can respond, I do a double team, which makes me move so fast it looks like there's several of me. After about a minute, I stop and check the mixture. It looks quite frothy, very liquidy and somewhat like the mix Bianca makes.

Floating back inside (stopping briefly to argue with the door), Bianca is sat, looking at me in a mixture of shocked, suprise and anticipation. I think they call it "flabbergasted". The next thing I have to do is cook it. I fly to the hob, and look intently at it. Five dials, I want to use only one hob. Bianca is surely going to help me, get this wrong and the whole house could go up in flames. I look at her, my face saying everything: "Help?". She sighs, but stays where she is, the camera still pointing at me with its red light on. Bianca starts to speak. "The top dial operates the large flame in the top left" she advises, with a smirk. Glancing at the clock, I notice its taken 20 minutes to get to this stage. Looking back at the hob, I get a brief sense of relif: The dials are triangle shaped, so I can grip them easily.

I grab the top dial and rotate it tentatively, and a hissing noise comes from the top left ring. This is somewhat confusing, as fire is meant to come out, not noise. I lower myself, and tilt my head so I can get a closer look. There is a funny smelling breeze, so perhaps the fire is just stuck inside. I tap the hob's top with the 1st claw on my right hand.

Suddenly, everything happens at once. My claw scratches the metal top of the hob, producing a pretty orange spark. The spark flies up, then falls into the breeze that was coming from the hob. Then, the air that was coming out of the hob stops being air and turns into fire.

All this happens with my face centimeters from the hob, which is now fully ablaze.

I shoot backwards, right into the table behind me, head bent towards my body so I can cradle to front of my head in my arms. The burning feeling is intense, worse than what my cut felt like, by about 100 times. Obviously, this was a trick that the hob had (it never has worked well when pokemon try to use it) to deter me from cooking. Rage runs through me, when I notice Bianca, rolling on the floor, tears running from her eyes... Laughing. I growl, a low, threatening grumble. That stops her from laughing, but her eyes are still tightly shut. To remedy this, I silently float forward and poke her gently in the forehead. This gives the desired effect: She jolts, opens her eyes, and... laughs some more. Now I'm confused - Most people who open their eyes and see my face immediately in front of them scream in fright, not laugh. Lorenzo rushes in now, with Latias (in her own form) floating in tow. Both take a look at me. They react differently. Lorenzo lowers his head and groans, Latias bursts out laughing, a shrill but pleasant sound which reverberates in volume rapidly. I wait a minute for the two females to calm down, which they do. I raise my eyebrow at Lorenzo, who knows what this means. "Latios, go and check the mirror in the hallway" and with that moves out of the doorway, allowing me access to afformentioned hallway.

First i'm confused. Why does Lorenzo want me to check the mirror, it should be fine. I look at it, then realise that Lorenzo wants me to look at MYSELF in the mirror. What I see is somewhat depressing. The feathers on the end of my snout are all black in color, with the skin beneath it looking red and raw. That is, the feathers that weren't burned clean off.

I stay there for a bit, prodding the offending area with my claw gently. Secretly, I'm proud of my feathers - No other pokemon has feathers with pattern like mine, that's self kept, and is so smooth and is practical for flying AND swimming. Secretly though. I don't show it off or anything like that. I'm just about to consider how this will impact how others see me and the ridicule I'm going to get, when a thought occurs.

I wander back through the kitchen, where Bianca has started cleaning up the flour. She smiles at me. "Sorry Latios," she apologizes "I didnt want you to burn yourself, I should have known and stopped you. Once I'm done here you can carry on with the pancakes". I nod, showing her I appreciate both her apology and offer to continue cooking.

I fly through the door with ease this time, then directly up to scan for what i'm looking for. After a minute or two, I find it. A Rawst berry bush. Famed for being capable of healing burns. I glide back down, landing next to the bush. After picking a few berries, I place them in my mouth, chewing them into a paste, then spit it into my claw before applying it to my burn. I eat the remaining paste, despite its sour taste. I've still got some time while Bianca cleans up, so I rotate around, lie on my back and stare at some clouds.

After a while laid on my back on the lawn, I decide that Bianca must be done cleaning my mess. But first, to clean the paste off my snout. After jetting off vertically, I fly into a cloud i'd spotted. I consider turning invisible, but my blue matches the sky, my white the clouds and I'm moving too fast for the eye to track anyway. I enter the cloud and instantly, visibility drops.

More importantly, my snout collides with thousands of water droplets, which immediately run all the way down to my tail, taking with them the remains of the Rawst berry paste. Satisfied, I accelerate towards the ground and break out of the cloud, the remaining water sliding off my feathers like it was never there.  
At about 50ft, I slow into a spiral and end up at the kitchen door. Folding my wings back, I hover on in. The kitchen is clean, the hob is lit with a frying pan above it that contains some bubbling oil. the mix I made is now in a measuring jug. Well, 3 measuring jugs. I think I made too much. Bianca peepes round the door. "Oh, your back! Your nose looks better! Anyway, I sorted out the mix for you, all you do is pour it in, wait, flip it, then serve it onto a plate. Also, its nearly 11, so its not breakfast anymore, its eleven'ses". And with that she goes back into the living room.

Looking over at the equipment, I realise that I could make this a lot easier by moving the liquid INSIDE the containers with my psychic. I hadn't used it so far because I was too tired, but having been woken up by being burnt, then having an extended rest in the garden, I guess I'm awake enough to use it. Using psychic on other things while tired often leads to failure, So I test it by 'picking up' a spoon first. It wobbles slightly before raising into the air, exactly as I intended.  
Happy that my psychic works, I levitate a blob of mixture from the measuring jug and onto the hot pan, then spread it out before it solidifies. After about 20 seconds, I psychic the solid pancake into the air, flip it, then release my grip, letting the pancake fall back into the pan with a satisfying SPLAT! Lastly, I wait a few seconds for it to cook a bit more, than in one swift psychic flare, fly the pancake from the pan to the waiting plate.

I repeat this 32 times, getting steadily better until I run out of batter. I carry the plate through to the living room, on a tray along with some syrup, some spare plates and some sugar. Latias sees them and lights up. "Pancakes!" she screams in her pokemon voice, making Bianca and Lorenzo turn around to look at the door, where I'm floating. I place the tray on the centre table, observing everyones expression. Its mediocre. "Dig In" I say, which means nothing to Lorenzo or Bianca, but the intention is clear, must be clear, because they reach forward and grab a plate and pancake each, then take turns squirting on some syrup.

Once everyone is eating, Bianca addresses us, albeit between pancakes. "Good effort with the pancakes Latios" She starts with. I'm too busy stuffing my face to acknowledge this. Bianca continues. "Anyway, I said that the Tour de Alto Mare was today, and that we should go watch". Agreement comes from everyone - "Splendid!" From Lorenzo, a pokemon "YAY!" from Latias and nodding from me. "Great! So it starts at 2, but I want a spot on the bridge by the finish and the big screen. So if we set off at 1 we can get there and get a good spot. By we, I mean, Me and Grandad. You two can watch how you like, but stay invisible and DON'T INTERFERE WITH THE RACE!" After saying this, she stares at Latias, who has just stuffed her dragon face with 3 pancakes. "Muh!" Latias exclaims , the pancakes obscuring her true objection.  
"No 'ifs or buts' Latias. Remember last year? You grabbed hold of that girls line and set her out to the ocean! The coast guard had to get her a helicopter to her, the poor girl!". By now, Latias' mouth is clear. "It was her fault, she made me do it!" she exclaims in her pokemon voice, desperate enough to forget that Bianca doesn't understand her. Bianca casts Latias a disapproving glare. "Whatever you say, your action last time was hopelessly unjustified, and unjustifiable. Don't do it again." Latias tries to look downcast, but it doesn't quite work. Something about the syrup dribbling out of her mouth. "Latios, I want to take my drawing gear. Could you carry it to the bridge for me?".

Sure, an easel, paint supplies, a bag and some 'canvas' flying through the air, in mid day, on the busiest tourist day of the year. Who's going to notice and photograph that? Surely not one of the thousands of people gathered to watch the race? I'm about to lodge my complaint, when Bianca interrupts. "Actually, could you drop it off in that side street, that way no one sees it."

I grudgingly nod my head, making Bianca smile. "Thanks, I know I can count on you.". She pauses, hesitating as if she doesn't want to ask the last bit. She does, but in a careful tone, and a very slight blush. " Also, Jay will be there, so he might pop round later, is that OK Lorenzo?". Lorenzo nods slowly. "Sure he can. If I might add, your not getting too attached to this Jay are you?". Bianca blushes. Me and Latias both stop eating, our ears visibly peeking up as we listen intently. Human relationships are always interesting. Or at least, on the TV it is. "Grandad! Don't you think i'm old enough to look after myself!?" Bianca protests, which sets Lorenzo chuckling. "I know darling, I'm just teasing you."

The pancakes are almost gone now, there is just one left. I glance at Bianca, who shakes her head. Next I look at Lorenzo, then the pancake, then back at Lorenzo. "You take it Latios, I don't want to have a heart attack" he grins. I look back to the pancake, fully intending on eating it, but its gone. Latias is floating lengthways, with the pancake in her claws, mouth open. I rage. I made these pancakes, I should have the last one!

Safe in this knowledge, I use a psychic attack to snatch the pancake off her. Obviously, this displeases her, so she prepares to launch a counter attack. My eyes widen as I realise what I've started. Bianca and Lorenzo both dive behind the sofa, as an ice beam slams itself into my chest. Almost instantly all of me bar my neck is frozen, and my concentration drops, also releasing the pancake. As it falls, Latias flys over, upside down, intending to grab the pancake in mid air as it falls. Not Likely. I rock my neck to the side, making me fall in the same direction as the pancake. Latias reaches the pancake, but is a millimeter off, so instead of the pancake landing in her mouth, it splays itself over her head, blocking her eyes. At the same time, I fall onto her, piledriving her right side, making her spin into the floor and lie still, unable to move the pancake or engage me.

The fall shatters the ice that had been surrounding me, so I grab the pancake off Latias' face and eat it while sat on her, preventing her from moving.

That's when I notice the devastation our mini-bout has caused. The syrup has been knocked over and poured on the floor, half the sofa is frozen and the less said about the other furniture that wasn't tied down (mainly a lamp, two vases and a bowl of fruit) the better.

Bianca peeks over the end of the sofa and goes ballistic. "ITS A PANCAKE FOR ARCEUS' SAKE! WHY DID YOU FEEL THE NEED TO GO TO WAR OVER IT? IT'S A G-" She's cut short by the sight of me, sat on Latias, munching on the pancake. Latias has given up trying to shift me, so i've just fed myself the pancake out of my claws, neck bent over so that my mouth will reach it. Bianca stops her rant, replacing it with an "Awwwww!" sound. The same sound she made when she saw that Skitty chasing its own tail.

"I'm going to draw this", She decides, holding still to capture the memory. Lorenzo gets up from behind the sofa, clutching his back as he lifts his old frame and big gut. "Bianca, what have I said about drawing Latios and Latias? Don't you think it'd arouse suspicion as t-" This time, Bianca interrupts. "Just because I paint something doesn't mean its real. I'll say its a feature on legendary pokemon in normal situations IF they were real". Lorenzo looks like he's about to counter argue, but decides its better to just let it go.

By now, I've finished with the pancake, so I hover up and go to 'sit' back down on the sofa. Bianca stops me. "Oh no you don't", she grins. "I think you should clean up the mess you made of our living room". She turns to Latias, who is still lying on the floor, looking up at Bianca. Just as Bianca opens her mouth, Latias disappears. Its almost immediately obvious to everyone that she's turned invisible and headed for the door. This fact occurs to Lorenzo, who moves a step to his left, blocking the door. "AWWWWWW!" Latias whines as she turns visible, directly in front of Lorenzo.

"Latias, this is your fault too. Help Latios clean up" Lorenzo glares. The floating red eon lowers herself, and drops her head, clearly sulking. "Great, No pancake AND I have to clean up" She says in poke speech. Lorenzo doesn't know what she's saying, but her face and tone of voice make it clear what she's thinking. "LESS OF THE ATTITUDE, YOUNG LADY" He shouts, forgetting that the "young lady" is 90 years older than him.

With that, Bianca and Lorenzo both leave the sitting room, presumably to get ready for going out, leaving me and my sister. "You idiot", she says the moment the door closes. "I cooked it, I should have had it." I point out. "Anyway, arguing isn't going to clean this room. I'll deal with the syrup. You pick up all the knocked over stuff.". This makes sense, as Latias isn't good at complex tasks, like cleaning a carpet. For once, she agrees without debate. While Latias lifts all the offended items off the floor and back to their respective places, I deal with the syrup that soaked into the carpet.

I lift the initial blobs with my psychic, and levitate them into the syrup bottle. However, the floor is still sticky. I have two options now. I can either spend the next 10 minutes sweeping, brushing and vacuuming the carpet, or hydropump it, then mop up the remaining water.

One hydropump and mop-up later, the floor is sparkling clean. Latias finished and left about 2 minutes ago. I consider my options. Its 12 o'clock, so we're setting off in an hour. I dont really need to "get ready" like Latias or Bianca does. How that works and why they do it, I dont know. They both look the same before and after, and Latias won't meet anyone new anyway so there is no need to look pretty anyway.

I want to check how my snout is doing, though. I fly through to the mirror, and lean towards it, going buzz-eyed to focus on the end of my face. The skin no longer looks inflamed, and the feathers that remain have got their blue color back. Not bad. You'd barely notice it from a distance.

Satisfied, I glide through the back door and back into the secret garden. I navigate my way to the pond and dive in, embracing the silky water. I'm still propelling myself with psychic, as its difficult to paddle with arms that are designed to be as drag-free as possible.

While I'm submerged, air bubbles fly up around me, pockets of air trapped in my feathers escaping as the water moves over them. Apparently, the water here used to be really dirty as people world just throw their rubbish in. But after the war, the new council made laws against it in order to protect the pokemon that lived and swam in the canals. So although the water here is salty, I'm swimming in a perfectly clear pool that leads out through to the rest of Alto Mare.

Occasionally other pokemon find their way in to this pond. Mostly only magicarp though, as the entrance is through a wall that looks solid, and only magicarp are stupid enough to swim into walls. I never tell them that though. If that magicarp ever evolves, it'll turn into a Garados, remember me calling it stupid and vow revenge.

After 'swimming' in circles for a bit, I decide to resurface and see how Bianca is doing.

I do my typical flying-through-the-archway-really-fast routine and head to the house. Thankfully, the large study window next to the kitchen has been opened, so I can fly through that instead. this means that I'm now in Lorenzo's study, where he does all his museum stuff. I just want to go to the race now, so I fly through to the hallway through the open door, where everyone should be waiting. Instead, there's just Bianca.

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Chapter 2 done! I like this one much better than Chapter 1 - but having just written Chapter 3 I can say thats where the story begins proper. I'm not giving away anything :) - there's much more interacting and the plot begins to take shape. I've also included some stuff that wasn't in my dreams, so points to anyone who figures out what that is. Also, apologies to any formatting errors, but the internet's gotten so bad I can just about upload, but editing in linebreaks or correcting paragraph formatting will be beyond me for the next few chapters.

As always, read and review! Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3: Lights, Camera, Action!

I'd planned to do some very philosophical character development. Unfortunately, I recon that the target audience here wants more action. plus this will last forever if I keep going into that much detail. I'm going to try and keep the detail, but progress the story a bit faster. If you like it, Review and let me know! Dont like it? Review and let me know!

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**Chapter 3: Lights, camera, action!**

Bianca looks at me and smiles. With reason. She's not the one who has to fly a mile with 2 kilos. Floating over to her, she hands me her easel, with her drawing bag draped over it. "I've managed to fit the canvas in the bag, so you dont have to worry about that". I huff, expelling as much air as possible to indicate the burden she's put on me and how much she should appreciate it. To her credit, she gives me a weak smile, cringes and thanks me again.  
I take the equipment in my outstretched claws, then fold them towards me and over the equipment. I fly up towards the ceiling, going horizontal to check that I can actually carry it without dropping it. I can.

I float back to the ground, accidentally clipping Latias (who had flown in out of my view) with the edge of the easel. "Owww!" She complains, before Bianca tells her to stop fussing, because I'm being kind. I lay the equipment back on the ground, as I dont need to carry it until I have to take it to Bianca.

A thudding and creaking sound comes from the ceiling where I just was. "I'm ready now" Shouts Lorenzo "Just coming downstairs now!". With that, the creaking sound moves to the top of the stairs. Bianca glances up the stairs, then her face visibly shifts, like she's startled. Now I'm intrigued. Lorenzo slowly walks down the stairs (Personally, I wanted to get him a stairlift, but apparently Latias thinks that'd be rude). He rounds the stair's corner, then we see what he's wearing.

A really fine suit. Looks expensive too, with a flashy label and hand-done stiching. His trousers are equally opulent. The cufflinks are from a market stand that sells classy (Instead of tacky) alto mare merchandise: The left cufflink is a well carved, smooth silver rendering of Latias, and the right one and equally expensive carving of me. The whole get up looks really good.

"What's this in aid of?" Latias asks. Lorenzo guesses from the questioning tone and tilt of Latias' head that we want to know why he's all dressed up. "Didn't I tell you?" He asks. Two dragons and a human shake their heads. He hasn't even told Bianca. "I'm the guest commentator for the race." Blank stares from all of us.

"I'm the local hero that got nominated to be the guest TV and radio host and commentator for this years tour de altomare. I got it for my great attitude with tourists as a guide at the museum. I'm dressed like this because I'm going to be on worldwide TV. Why do you think I was so glad you lot were going?"

We all groan. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" Bianca asks, almost in shock. "Well, I never really managed to work it in." Lorenzo says as he rubs the back of his head sheepishly. Bianca throws her head back, slapping her forehead with her palm. "Right then!" she says. "We need to get a move on then if we want to get you to the studio on time for the pre-race interviews" and as she's saying this she throws open the front door and steps over the threshold, dragging Lorenzo by the elbow. The moment he's clear of the door, she slams it closed.

Me and Latias both turn to one another. "Wait for it", I say to Latias, raising the 1st claw on my right paw, and begin to count down. "3... 2... 1..."... Bang on cue, Lorenzo opens the door and grabs an opened letter off the side. "Forgot the admission letter" He quips, before leaning back out of the door, slamming it shut.

"How do you do that?" Latias asks me. "I'm psychic" I joke. It had nothing to do with physic. Lorenzo ALWAYS forgets something important. I'm ready to go, and Latias looks ready too. We just need to figure out how we're going to drop off the equipment, tell Bianca where it is and be at the start of the race. We dont want to leave the equipment in a side street, its quite expensive. I can't protect it, because I can't be seen in public (in order to maintain the balance between myth and legend, to avoid capture and remain free, blah blah blah etc...), though Latias can if she takes her human form. Latias must be reading my thoughts, because she piques up with "How about you we both fly to that allyway which is always empty, - you carry the equipment - and I'll look after it in my human form while you fly to find Bianca and tell her where it is?" She suggests. "Two issues with that" I counter, picking up the artistic equipment up off the floor, heading for the study,intending to fly out the window. "One, You'll get distracted and wander away from the equipment. Even if you did stay with it, what do you do if someone asks you why your loitering outside their house with some expensive art equipment?". Latias' face visibly drops. She knows I'm right. "Secondly, how do you suppose I tell Bianca where it is?". I could telepath Bianca, but that takes energy, especially when I'm also trying to be invisible. I need to be close by as well. If she's in a group of people I might risk whacking someone with one of my wings, even if they are invisible, which would be difficult to explain.

"Duuuuuuh" Latias says, which to non pokemon soundslike a long wavey Lati coo. "You can telepath her". I'm now hovering through the window, Latias in tow. "Ugh, Because... You know what? I think i'll just telepath her". That said, We both simultaneously turn invisible and shoot off directly upwards, Latias still slightly slower than me in spite of the load I'm carrying.

Me and Latias can both still see each other, as we see as much through our sense of aura as we do our eyes. So even though we're invisible to visible light and RADAR (to an extent), we still know where the other is just fine. With this, me and Latias ascend rapidly, doing all manor of spirals and rolls in an effort to out-do the other. I've just tucked in my arms to travel faster when I remember the art stuff I'm supposed to be holding. Specifically, the art stuff that I'm no longer holding and is that heading towards the earth at terminal velocity. Quite why I tucked my arms in while I was holding it is beyond me (I recon its instinct when I started flying), but now is not the time to dwell on that. Now is the time to catch the falling art stuff, and not a second later. I do a hairpin turn, so I'm now facing the ground, and more importantly the falling art equipment. Luckily, its terminal velocity is lower than that of my powered flight, and momentum had kept it from falling for a few seconds. Unlucky, I'd dropped it quite low down and travelled about a kilometer vertically before realising and reacting. I race towards it, so fast I actually pass it, before psychicly slowing it down and moving it into my arms. I could carry it using psychic to carry it all the way, but that would be very tiring.

I return back to where Latias is, who just says "Idiot" before zipping off. I catch up to her without difficulty. We start circling the island, looking for the best place that's both close to the bridge and secluded. It looks like we're doing her plan anyway. Even though we're at half-airplane-cruising-altitude height, our eyes are powerful enough to see a resolution of about 1ft on the ground. We can see both the giant complexity of the glistening waterways and colorful streets, and the tiny details, like flocks of pokemon, children playing and couples chatting.

I find the spot I think is best. "Sis! What about there?" I shout, pointing to the alleyway that I'd had in mind earlier. Its only about 100 meters from the bridge, but it involves five junctions and so is difficult to navigate to and consequently empty of humans. Its a little siding that's got one entrance and looks like somewhere that big industrial dustbins would be kept. Latias sees where I'm pointing, flying slightly lower for a better look. After about 5 seconds, she agrees. "My idea was a bit further away, plus there were some people there. Lets go here instead." I nod. "You first though, so you can check there's no one hiding." I dont want anyone to see this art stuff that I can't turn invisible, it looks like its floating of its own accord. Latias nodds and jets off. In about 3 seconds, she reaches the spot and has to decelerate. I can see her look around for a few seconds before becoming visible. Then she turns into her Bianca form, which must mean its safe for me.

I descend rapidly doing zigzags, not just for fun, but also to make the easel and associated bag hard to see and impossible to photograph. The fake Bianca (A/N: If its not really Bianca and I'm explicitly referencing do I still capitalize the name? I know its still a name, but pasta is the name of a food and we don't capitalize that) looks up and smiles as I arrive in under a second. I set the bag and easel to rest on the wall and turn to Latias. The resemblance with Bianca is really quite unnerving.

Latias can't poke speak when assuming a human form because she doesn't have any vocal chords, but I'd forgotten this so I'm suprised when her voice turns up in my head. "Go find Bianca and bring her here. Be quick, I dont want to stand here forever, it smells, and the race is due to start in 40 minutes!". With no point in hesitating I fly up, feeling the relief of not having to carry any weight. Finally, I can fold my arms in. Now, to find Bianca. I check the bridge, but she's not there yet. Then I check the route from the bridge to the house, flying sideways through the alleys she would have gone through, soaring a few meters above everyone's heads, all the time scanning the crowd for her white beret. Once or twice I see one, but it isn't Bianca under it. I see all kind of Alto Mare related stuff though. Right now, I'm looking at a baby in a pram being pushed by a young mother and father, all of them eating an ice cream. I say eating. The baby appears to be wearing it. Through years of living here, I can tell their native, not tourists. Firstly, the pram. Its a make that can fold down and is light, essential If your going to be going on small boats that sink if they have too much luggage. Secondly, the ice cream. The cone that they put it in is adorned in a serviette that is stamped with the name of a little known ice cream shop, the owner of which I've saved the life of when he fell off a passenger cruiser out at sea. Of course, the ice cream man knew that a Latios had saved him, but he understood that I wanted to remain hidden, and has kept his secret for the last 20 years. We visit his parlour every other Saturday. The first time we went there was interesting:

Bianca must have been about 8. It was mid summer, and Bianca was getting irritated, she wanted an ice cream. Me and Latias hadn't had an ice cream before, but we wanted one too. So Lorenzo took us all (Me and Latias invisible) to the only parlour he hadn't tried. He hadn't tried it because it was so secluded and he'd only seen it the other day. When we'd arrived it was empty, no one at the window or the desk, but there was a bell. Latias used her invisible claw to tap the button on the top, producing a plesent ringing sound. Which I enjoyed, so I pressed it too, tentatively pressing the button with my own claw. The feeling if the hammer hitting the bell through the levering mechanism enhanced my perception on the noise. I loved it even more. So I naturally kept hitting it, until a man appeared from a door behind the counter. I shoved Bianca so she was in front of the bell. Being about 8, she started ringing the bell too, thereby voiding any suspicions that an invisible force was ringing the bell.

That's when I looked up and saw the man. Not just the man, but his aura too. It was the same as the aura of the man I'd rescued from drowning. (Aura is like a fingerprint. It can change slightly, but the underlying pattern is unique to the person). Without doubt, I turned visible, to everyone present's shock.  
"I thought uncle Latios was ment to not be seen outside?" Bianca had asked. But the ice cream man just nodded kindly. "It's okay" he had said. "I know Latios". With that, I shrieked and embraced him, quelling everyone's suspicion. The ice cream man had aged, but unlike Lorenzo, the man had gotten thinner and taller. Latias became visible too upon seeing my acceptance. With that, he raised his eyebrows and asked us what flavor we wanted. Me and Latias wanted Oran Berry flavor, Bianca wanted Pecha and Lorenzo, vanilla. Me and Latias pointed to the Oran Berry on the sign, which the ice cream man smiled at. "Oran Berry it is for the lifesavers". Bianca and Lorenzo ordered, but when Lorenzo got his wallet out to pay, The ice cream man shook his head. "No charge". Lorenzo objected, but the man won him over. "No, we're friends. You dont know me?! My names Tony. Now we're friends, I dont have to charge you. Take a seat in the garden outside. I'll make sure no one sees the legends." and winked at me, then disappeared back behind the door. Everyone hauled out to the garden. Me, Latias and Bianca played for a bit. We'd got a game where I'd take something of Bianca's and she and Latias would try and retrieve it either from me or from where I'd managed to hide it while they weren't paying attention. Latias would try all sorts of dangerous tricks: Carrying Bianca on her back, throwing Bianca at me while she snuck round, or dropping Bianca on my head to cover my eyes, but she was in safe hands and never once got hurt.

Tony had emerged to see us playing while Lorenzo watched and smiled. We were visible upon tony's assurances, and so were visibly suprised by the display Tony had put on for us. Me and Latias both had the biggest pile of Oran Berry Ice Cream I'd ever seen (that didn't say much though, I'd not seen an ice cream that I could say "that's an ice cream" before). It was topped with mixed berry juice and had lots of colored squares in it, and perched atop of a giant cone that was shaped like our wings. It must have taken him a lot of effort. Bianca and Lorenzo both had the largest size cone the man offered, but it was still no match for the epic-osity of mine and Latias'. "I would have shaped it, but I know you wouldn't have wanted to eat it because you would be worried you would spoilt it." He was right, he seemed to know us so well. Me and Latias had swooped down to get our ice cream. The old man had smiled as we'd tried to pick them up, then did a nice laugh when we failed. Our claws couldn't quite pick out the cone, it was just too big. "Just take the stand" he had said, as he took the stand holding the cones off the tray and placed them each on a separate table, then spaced the tables so that we could all sit together and me and Latias could eat our ice cream and not whack people with our wings.  
Tony sat with us. "I've shut up shop" he had said. "I've told my staff to go home early and I've locked the door." He dont sound mad, he sounded delighted. "your safe here". He concluded. Me and Latias didn't know what to do. The man had put in so much effort just to be nice to us. "Dont worry about it" Tony had said. "My reward is being here today.". With that, both me and Latias hovered above our ice creams, and started to eat them. The thing was, we'd never had an ice cream before, only pokemon food or means which required a knife and fork, which Lorenzo had carved special handles for our claws to fit around. Me and Latias had both looked in puzzlement at the ice cream before picking up the forks - that were on the tables should a meal ever be served - and tried to scoop up the ice cream. Laughing ensued from the humans, as they started licking their ice creams. "we're supposed to lick them?" I said to Latias, who just responded with "Makes sense!". Given that insight, we had both decided that the best method would be to leave the ice creams on the stands, hover above them and float downwards, licking as we went. Unfortunately, our toungs were too small to reach far beyond our mouths, so for the first quarter of the ice cream, we were getting most of it on our snouts. I'd tried rotating my head so that my snout wasn't in the way, but it didn't make much difference. Bianca did a girlish laugh when she saw our ice cream splattered feathers. Lorenzo and Tony had been talking, about everything from ice cream carving to museum fossils to how hard it is to look after two legenderies. Tony was very interested. "I got them big ice cream because they must use up a lot of calories.". Lorenzo had responded with "Aye, they do eat quite a lot. Speaking of, they really are enjoying your ice cream!". They'd seen what a mess we'd made, and Tony had gone back inside and got us spoons. He'd wrapped the handles in napkins, so our claws could fit round them. While this was better, my eyes are on the top of my snout, and my mouth on the underneath. So the spoon kept missing my mouth. The same went of Latias. Eventually, we'd figured out where our mouths were, but only after we'd smeared even more ice cream over our feathers. That said, the ice cream, or at least, the ice cream that got in our mouths, was incredible. Neither me nor Latias are fond of cold things - what with being dragon types - but this ice cream was delicious. It actually tasted better than natural Oran berries, but it must have been made out of them because we felt rejuvinated just eating it. The little squares were miniature pokeblocks, in all sorts of complimenting flavors, and the mixed berry juice was sweet, but not too sweet. All of it must have been home made.

Eventually, all the ice cream was gone. Me and Latias had needed some way to thank Tony, but had no idea how. In the end Latias decided the best method would be affection, and had flown over to the sitting ice cream man, and touched her mouth to Tony's wrinkled cheek, before cheering and giving him a hug, being careful with her sharp claws. Tony's cheek was covered in ice cream, and he was grinning. "Thank you Latias, I'm glad you enjoyed it!". I had to think of something now, I enjoyed the ice cream to. In the end I settled with bumping his human fist with my Latios fist (A hand shake might have scratched him) before giving him a careful hug too. "I glad you enjoyed it too, Latios. If I might add, next time would you two prefer the same flavor in a hot drink? I recon you guys mustn't like cold things much". me and Latias both broke up the hug and nodded rapidly, Latias shrieking. "I thought so". Tony had nodded. Shortly after that we left.

Back to the present. Even though I'm flying above them at a cozy 90mph, scanning the crowd and negotiating the turns with my lightning reactions, all they (the crowd) are aware of is a small breeze as I go past, as no human on earth can see me now. Halfway to her house, I realize that I am in fact an idiot. Bianca won't be heading from her house to the bridge, because she's going via the studio, which is opposite the bridge on the main canal.

I fly upwards, quickly dodging a washing line strung between two adjacent 'houses' before coming out over the rooftops and flying back to the bridge, taking a lot less time as I'm on top of the houses and am going as-the-mawcrow flies. When I get there, Bianca still isn't. Its probably a good idea to work my way to the studio the same way Bianca would walk, whilst scanning the crowd to see if she's in it. I start off, remembering where the studio is from one of Latias' antics 3 years ago:

One day, me an Latias were both bored. It was too hot to play in the garden, and it was mind-numbingly boring being stuck in an air-conned room all day. So Latias snook out of the house, and found her way into the Alto Mare Broadcasting Station. The AMBS is part of a worldwide TV network, but it also makes the local shows, including the weather. Anyway, Latias somehow got into the weather forecasting part of the building (Invisible, of course), and started harassing the weather man invisibly. While he was on air. We (Me, Lorenzo, Bianca, and the rest of Alto Mare) watched at home as the weatherman started turning around, slapping himself, and threatening to "RESIGN IF EITHER OF YOU TOUCHES ME ONE MORE TIME!", while he gestured to the camera guy and studio manager. To us, he was yelling at thin air, oblivious to Latias' presence. Before we knew it Latias must have prodded him one last time, as the weatherman swore a bunch of times, punched the camera guy in the face, told the co-anchor where he could place his ideas of a social night out, and ran out of the studio, claiming he was going to sue for workplace harassment, right before the signal cut to a test pattern with "TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES" and a flat beep. I'd realized Latias was missing, put two and two together and caught her trying to sneak out of the stage door.

I smile at that memory. Latias is a handful, but she keeps all of us on our toes.

By now I've reached the studio and still not seen Bianca. So she still must be inside. I need to get to her, and I AM curious about what is taking her so long. So it looks like I'm going to sneak in. Latias would be proud. I'm interrupted by a burly looking guy emerge from a fire door at the side of the studio. Planning and building space in Alto Mare is limited, so most buildings have a narrow footprint and are consequently quite tall to make up for it. The studio has one side facing the canal, one side adjoining a florists, one side down an allyway and the remaining side with the main entrance facing one of the major tourist and shopping routes. I'm not going to be able to get in through there as I won't fit in the revolving door, So I make the snap decision to fly through the fire door that is closing shut after the man.

I barely make it. I'm inside a blue corridor, but if Bianca is with Lorenzo, they'll be in the studio set filming room by now, which should be on the top floor in order to get a good view of the canal. I find the stairs and float up them. The stairs have 2 corners that go around a pillar that has silver doors on it, meaning I have a hard time getting round with my wings back. I back out, bring them to the front of me, and carry on.

The corridors and stairs are virtually empty, and the TV'S that hang on the walls are showing all kinds of lines, numbers and boxes. I get to the next floor, and the corridor color scheme changes from blue to amber, like Latias' eyes. I continue up the stairs, deciding I should keep going up until I get to the top floor. On the way up is a heavy metal door with an amber sign lit up on it. "5 MINUTES OR LESS TO LIVE - ENTRY TO GREEN ZONE RESTRICTED". Blast. To the right of the heavy door is some kind of lock that I dont understand. Its got a flat surface with 3 lights on it, currently all glowing red. I suddenly remember that this lock should still work by preventing the door by opening through some form of bolt, which I can frequently override with my psychic, same as the lock on Bianca's house. I look behind me, the turn in the stairs providing an excellent shield. I throw my psychic at the door, feeling for the round, horizontal, cylindrical shape of the bolt. Its beginning to cause me some strain when I finally find it and move it to the right, freeing the door. I nudge the door open with my snout, and glide through, before closing the door and putting the bolt back in place to avoid suspicion.

I'm now up a set of green stairs, with green paint adorning the walls, which lead into a green corridor with more green paint, where a woman with a headset microphone is arguing with a man in a suit. While I glide above them - I think the bit Bianca will be in is called the "set", so I'm looking for a door with that on - their conversation finds its way into my ears. "I dont care about contractual obligation. Murdoch int. offered me a sat relay for our gobos in return for the footage. They'll air it or I-" I feel sorry for the man in the suit. That woman's face looks the classic picture of terrifying: Arched eyebrows, skin stretched over her skull, making it look like it could tear out at any second, and a tan color that I dont ever recall being possible for humans to achieve by exposure to the sun... But at any rate, I'm now down the corridor and round a corner, away from the scary woman, and at the door marked "SET". Its a big metal one like the one on the stairs, but with a countdown on it. All the other rooms say VACANT on them, bar one labeled MAKEUP which just had a woman reading a book in it, so Bianca must be on 'set'.

A voice rings out through some speakers in the roof (the same woman arguing with the man). "Local roll in 30 seconds". I have no clue what that means, so I ignore it and concentrate on the 'set' door. Its got glowing numbers on it, which I don't fully understand. It also looks, if anything, heavier than the one on the stairs. "NAT ONLINE" the voice says. I zip down the corridor, checking its clear. I see the man and woman disappear into a room with a metal door marked "CTRL". The sign on that door clicks over to the red text "LIVE"

Satisfied the coast is clear, I dart back to the set door, which the display now has a different number on it. A '15', then a dot, then a 3 digit number that is changing fast.

Bianca has tried teaching me numbers. I've tried learning them. So while I understand normal numbers and what a 'digit' is, this number doesn't look normal. Its also got a full stop right after it, then a 3 digit number immediately afterward. I dont have time to think about that now. I think if I ignore the full stop and just look at the first number, I've got 15 somethings until something happens. Actually, 14 somethings. Actually, if its changing every second, its 14 seconds until something.  
"LOCAL CONTROL BROADCAST T-MINUS 4" the voice says. I start working my psychic on the door. "LOCAL CONTROL 3... 2... 1... VEE TEE 1 START." A pause. Another voice, "VEE TEE 1 STARTED". These voices are very distracting. Another voice "BROADCAST STANDARD 8 - IS GOOD". The number on the door ticks over to 5, at the same time as the womans voice comes over the speaker: "SET LIVE IN 4. 3. 2..." She stops at 2, just as I find the bolt with my psychic. I move it and go through the doorway, and a medium volume beep goes up through the speaker.

I panic - that beep could mean I've broken the door and set off an alarm. But no, I haven't. The beep stops, and I hear the voice of the main anchor man welcoming the audience from the other side of a big temporary wall to my right that appears to be separating the door and the stage.

Everything is painted black. The back of the door is black, The walls are black, The wooden plank floor is black and the ceiling that is higher up than I expected is also black, or painted black.

I close the door and drift down the narrow but surprisingly tall black corridor that has been formed between the wall that the door is in, and the narrow partition. I round it, and instantly locate Bianca, stood behind a bunch of men leaning into large boxes on poles with lights on and men holding small boxes with buttons on them, staring at the set. Their wearing black shirts, with cards on string around their necks. I turn to the 'set' too, and see what they've done to this space.

Its bizarre. One moment, your in the world of wires running along the floor, lights everywhere but every surface painted so black you can hardly see, the next, you've got a brightly lit, nice carpeted room with a few sofas, a hard wood coffee table and a view over a balcony onto the main canal, and more importantly, the starting/finishing line of the race. I float higher to get a better view, watching my wings and moving them to avoid all the cables and lamps that are hanging from the ceiling. The boxes that the men are leaning into have a kind of curved glass thing on the front of them. It kind of looks like the things tourists have and Bianca owns when she wants to paint something for later. Its a camera. So the men behind them must be camera-men. I'm still invisible, and not even cameras can photograph me, so i'm fine to float a bit closer to the balcony. I turn back to the 'set' and notice Lorenzo.

Lorenzo is sat on one sofa, with lights hanging from the high ceiling pointing directly at him. He's also being filmed from at least 3 different angles at once, by mantis-like camera men, hunched over their equipment. One of the cameras that is pointing at the main anchor has a red light on top. Everyone is looking at that camera, I realise. Behind me and the rest of the camera people, a large tinted glass window almost (but not quite) conceals the woman with the headset and a lot of screens, buttons and wires. In all this, I've forgotten completely about Bianca and the drawing stuff...

Suddenly, her voice rings out again, though much quieter on the set. "SAT CON READY FOR GLOBAL ON MY MARK". Everyone on stage tenses. The anchor included, who tells the audience that Alto Mare is about to be broadcast around the world. "MARK" the woman says, and rather undramatically presses a button.

"Hello to all our other viewers just joining us here in sunny Alto Mare to watch the 57th annual, Tour de Alto Mare!"

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I forgot to say! Before I went to hospital, I'd been to see my sister being filmed on junior mastermind (I'm from jolly old England, chaps!), and accidentally gone to the wrong set, which was being filmed live, which is probably why I dreamed about a TV studio. What the dream distorted (such as speech) I've corrected either with stuff that was said while I've been in a TV studio, or relevant information.

Anyway, how do you like the altered style? Too much plot? Too much description? Not enough average tasks set for Latios? In my dream, Latios decides to go into the florists next to the studio as well, and consequently gets confused by the types of flowers, as well as a few other things. I'd left that out in an effort to make the story progress at a slightly similar rate to that of other fanfics of this kind, but if you want me to go back to the style i've used in the first two, please let me know in a review or PM me. I really dont mind!


	4. Chapter 4: Ready, Steady, Disobey!

Thanks again to my reviewers, including an7: Comment Accepted! The plot is acting more like a framework from which daily live hangs around and clips onto. It just so happens that one of the events in daily life is the Tour de Alto Mare. It tones down after the race, don't worry!

Oh, i've just seen on the news about an explosion at a TV studio in an eastern nation, so I think I have to express my sincere condolences, and also state that any resemblance to any people, persons or companies is purely coincidental. I also dont own pokemon or Nintendo, though branched devices are used under the creative and fair use guidelines. Not suing me this time!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Ready, Steady, Disobey!**

The anchor looks really professional. The set is absolutely boiling because of all the lights, but he's barely broken into a sweat! Even I'm struggling: My feathers provide an excellent insulater for heat - Great when your sleeping outside in the cold and need to maintain body heat. But when your in a boiling hot TV studio and hovering a few centimeters from some 400° bulbs, yeah, not so great. Briefly I wonder if I'm acting as a heat shield for the people below. I'm feeling the heat, and heat can't pass right through something and not loose energy at the same time as far as I know, so are the people below feeling the heat from the light I'm blocking? Then again, invisibility isn't exactly hand-in-hand with the laws of physics, so I'll let other slide for now.

I begin to pant. My tough skin doesn't have sweat pores, so I'm instinctively venting the heat by panting like a poochyana. I try to quiet down. There are loads of cylinders hanging from wires, and they could be microphones. If they are I don't want them to pick up my panting. I need to get away from this lamp. I slowly descend, forgetting about my large wings in my haste (ironic, I was trying to go slowly). I clip a lamp while raising my right wing to balance myself. A clanging sound, followed by moderate pain ensues. I look at the offending wing, confused. The lamp's hot metal casing is touching the bandage that Bianca put on my wing earlier, and is starting to smoulder. I've also rotated the lamp slightly, but no one seems to have noticed. In the half second I've been looking at my wing, the moderate pain becomes intense, like someone's just stabbed me and its gone all the way through my wing.

I yelp, I can't help it, at the same time drawing my wings down and away from the lights. Everyone looks up, even the presenter. Hopefully they'll assume my yelp was metal grinding, because In the process of pulling my wing down I've broken the metal thing that holds the lamp to the poles that criss cross the length of the roof, and the lamp begins to swing from A cable that goes from the lamp to the ceiling. correction, used to. Its just snapped, whipping towards me and trailing some very dangerous looking sparks. Given this mornings recent venture with a spark, I decide its best to avoid this collection of them. I duck, lowering my head but maintaining my altitude, as the cable swings by. This appears to be the final straw for the lamp, which starts to fall. Its all but destined to hit me square in the head, an injury which could be serious given its heat and sharp corners, when it stops falling and sways there. I'm momentarily confused, until I fly slightly my left and see that the lamp, while disconnected from the roof and not producing light anymore, is hanging from its pole by a metal wire with 'SAFETY' stamped on it in yellow, with some sort of clip on the end attaching it back round to itself, forming a loop. Everything goes quiet, so I asses my wound. It looks like the pain in my wing which started all this was caused by the lamp burning through the bandage and onto my skin. Its beginning to go away though.

I turn my entire body so I'm horizontal, but keep my wings down over my body. I'm in just about the exact middle of the room, altitude wise. 3 meters from the floor, two and a half to the ceiling. The presenter regains his composure and carries on. "Looks like even the ghosts want to watch the race today, eh?" He jokes to a clearly rattled Lorenzo.

Lorenzo looks a nervous wreck, or at least, his aura does. Its shows up a very unstable yellow that keeps oscillating to and from a murky yellow-brown rapidly - Me and Latias associate aura with colors, its easier than each of us trying to parse emotions when we interpret things differently. All I will say is, Latias is a lot better at reading aura than me - However, on the outside, Lorenzo looks composed and more importantly, 20 years younger. The makeup people have redrawn his features, put foundation over the aging spots and (disturbingly) made his wrinkles seem less... wrinkly.

I remember, one time about 4 years ago when Bianca was about 10, Latias and her were doing girl stuff and trying to make each other look pretty by adding different colored sludge from bright looking pots to their faces. They'd 'invited' (more like dragged) me into their room to see what I thought of each 'remake', which was their word for adding more makeup to each other. Apparently, being male, I would be a able to gauge how attractive they looked, which was stupid, as Bianca is human and humans have weird definitions of 'attractive' (You just have to watch any number of reality TV shows to see what I mean), and Latias is the only one of Latias around, so there is no comparison or other Latias' to set trends. She's also my sister, which is just weird. I thought she looked the worse at every addition, and made this opinion widely known.

Latias - who was receiving her remake in pokemon form - told me that I had to say something nice, to which I responded with "At least you can't get any worse", which was apparently the wrong thing to say, no matter how justified. I was right though. The sludges that they were applying looked okay on Bianca (Actually, they looked rather nice. The bit that surrounded her eyes had tiny sparkly things in it, and she'd made her skin look darker, but not too dark, making the radiance in her eyes stand out.) looked terrible on Latias, as it was being applied to feathers, not skin. Latias also kept sneezing or fidgeting, so the net result looked like she'd flown through a cloud of mud.

That was not the case with Lorenzo right now. He looked, quite simply, younger. I smile to myself. Deep down he must be loving this.

"Oh yes," Lorenzo agrees "I dont blame them, its beautiful weather today, perfect for racing, and I for one can't wait to get this race underway!" Lorenzo says, looking towards the presenter. The light that was on goes off on top of the camera that had it on. What's up with that light? Everyone seems to want to look directly at it. "Yes as the viewers can see from our helicopter, the course is looking good! And with that, I think its time to meet our favorite racers!" With that, the light appears back on top of a different camera this time, the one at the very left of the stage. Everyone's necks snap round to face it.

At this point, I remember why I'm here. Its been 15 minutes since I left Latias, and in the event that she hasn't wandered off, she'll be worried for me. With everyone looking at the first racer, a boy with blackish hair, I float down to Bianca, who is the only one not looking either on stage or at the camera. Instead, she's stood on tiptoes, trying to see over all the equipment and across to where the black haired racer just came from. He had emerged from a door marked "FNL PREP" which had since silently swung shut. I float to within a meter of her, maneuvering my head, wings and body around all the cables hanging from the ceiling, then try to establish a telepathic connection.

"Bianca?" I ask her via telepathy, but quietly. I dont want it to show on her face. Her mind is occupied by something though. Like she's looking for something... or someone? "Bianca?" I 'say', a tad louder. This time, a response. "What the..." she thinks, this I can pick up. "Its Latios. I'm using telepathy to speak to you". I've done this before, just not many times, so Bianca knows I can hear any thoughts associated with me. "LATIOS! What are you doing here? How did you get in?". The strain of this connection is beginning to wear on me already. Keep going and I'll become visible in the worst possible place, surrounded by TV cameras. I cut to the chase. "I've dropped off your arty stuff, Latias is looking after it while I tell you where it is" Bianca stutters in her mind. "You forgot, didn't you?" I say. She realises there's no point in lying to someone who can read her thoughts. "... Yes" She says. I sigh. "What do you suggest I do then?". Silence, except of course for Lorenzo interviewing the racer in the background. "I'm not allowed in here for much longer, so why doesn't Latias pretend to be me, carry my stuff, set it up on the bridge, then we swap when I get there?" She finally comes up with. Its better than the plan I had, which was somewhere between 'smart blonde' and 'honest lawyer ' on the scale of existence. "Okay. Meet you at the bridge at..." I trail off, prompting Bianca for an answer. "Quarter to one" She responds. It's half past now. "Okay" I say, severing to the connection. Bianca, to her credit, didn't alter her face at all while we were telepathing. Lorenzo finishes his interview with the first racer, and welcomes the second racer. "I've heard a lot about this next one from my granddaughter" Lorenzo says. Oh no. Not him. Sure enough, I look to the FNL PREP door - the last racer came from there, so it makes sense - and out he comes. "Jay Will!" Lorenzo introduces, as a camera swivels round and gets the red light on top of it.

Bianca jumps up and down on the balls of her feet, almost clapping but just containing herself. Jay, for the record, is Bianca's current boyfriend. I dont like him, for reasons that will immediately become apparent if he acts the way he normally does. "HEY WHAT UP?!" He arrogantly waves over to the camera with the light on. Yep. When he stops, the light switches from the camera back to the one in the middle. Jay sits himself down on the sofa next to Lorenzo, confidently folding his right leg over so its resting on his left leg. Its like he's not been told that the whole world is watching the show. I dont like him. Did I mention that?

Bianca (who I'm now hovering above and slightly to the right of, unbeknownst to her) is now holding a very quiet conversation with the makeup guy. How do I know he's the make up guy? Something about the v-neck, styled eyelashes and ridiculously camp attitude. "Isn't he just perfect?". The make up guy can't care less. "Your pass says live +10. Its now live +15. Leave". The vindictiveness of this somewhat lost after he waves his hand, opens his handbag and checks a pocket watch, even though the time is on a giant digital clock behind him.

Bianca realizes he's right, waves one last time to either Lorenzo or Jay, and skips her way over to the door I came through. Its been designed for quick exit, so she slams her palms against a rubber bar and the door pops open, where she runs through, leaving the door to close automatically behind her.

I can't stand being near Jay's high pitched, arrogant voice any more. Right now he's boasting about teaching his swampert hydro cannon. I bolt for the open balcony. No point winding my way through corridors when there's an open window right there. I dodge around through various hanging things, paying close attention to where my wings are and more importantly, where they shouldn't be.

I make it outside, I'm now floating directly above the canal. Below me is a floating platform with some rope tied to a large pole that's mounted to it. The rope goes right to the other side of the canal, where an identical platform hosts the other pole that the rope is mounted on. Why didn't they just attach it to the building? Above that, opposite the studio, a large screen shows the action inside the studio, while a helicopter hovers about 100 meters above. Both platforms hold an officer Jenny, an official with a flag and some sort of computer which I guess times the race. Lorenzo has just finished talking to Jay by the looks of the big screen.

I head off to Latias. There's only 7 minutes to the time we agreed to swap, when I arrive. Latias is there, texting on a phone. "Who's phone is that?" I ask. "I found it" She replies telepathically. I dont have time to be annoyed. "We need to go, now. Get the equipment and follow me." "BU-" "NOW!". That brief exchange sorts it. If we arrive while Bianca is there, questions will be asked as to why Bianca's identical sister won't stay with Bianca to watch the race, which almost everyone in alto Mare attends. While its not impossible to explain, its very annoying. With that, I fly through the streets, leading the way to the bridge. Latias follows on foot, still able to sense my aura, as I'm still invisible. After 5 minutes, we arrive. The bridge is packed, but Latias musters her "I'm a budding artist/cute girl holding a heavy thing. Please let me past" face and gets to the best spot after about a minute, middle of the bride, facing the finish/start line. Latias occasionally draws, so she sets up the easel easily with her faux-human hands. Right on cue, she gets up, pulling her "Oh no, I forgot something" face: lips in an o shape, hidden by her hand, raised eyebrows, with a hint of worry. With that performance done, she heads off to the right of the bridge, opposite to the direction she entered in. I'm hovering level with the bridge, and so see how well our plan goes. Almost immediately after clearing the crowd, she passes Bianca who's heading in the opposite direction, towards the bridge. This plan, while complicated, is working well - simple to execute, but confusing to understand, so no one will suspect that the little innocent girl they just let push past them was actually a legendary pokemon.

Bianca arrives at her easel, and, turning to give an explanation to those that want one, she quietly says "Forgot my beret" to a befuddled pensioner.  
Smooth.

The interviews last to about 10 minutes before the race begins. Latias (AKA fake Bianca) had gone into a side street to change into an invisible Latias, and joins me as I watch in front of the big screen. I turn to her, voicing my primary concern. "Jay's in the race". She growls. We're floating far enough away from people to talk, so her Lati growl is audible to my ears. "I hate Jay" she says. "He always treats us like we're simple minded". I agree. The only reason Jay knows about us is that Bianca didn't tell us he was coming round once, so we were flying around the house completely visible when he walked through the door. He promised to keep us a secret. Even though it seems like he's kept this promise, he's so obnoxious that I wish he didn't know.

The presenter on the screen finishes the interviews, telling the audience they'll be back after the break. Instead of adverts, this big screen continues to run a live feed, it does every year. I asked Bianca why once and she mumbled something about advertising and sponsorship. So we hear the presenter point at the light and go "FIX THAT, you obviously didn't mount it right first time. That could have killed me.". The camera falls backwards, to reveal the light hanging from a pole to the left of the picture. The camera man must have abandoned and gone to fetch a drink of some sort, because the next 5 minutes of footage is just the lamp being replaced.

Suddenly, the feed cuts to the presenter, who is wandering out to the balcony, being followed by a camera. Lorenzo is also following. "Welcome back viewers, and get ready because the race is just 4 minutes away!" The crowd roars, and a countdown appears on the bottom right of the screen. Lorenzo takes over. He's clearly been told what he should say, but it doesn't show. "Listen to that crowd, Tim." With that the crowd in the adjoining streets cheer as the screen cuts between them. Lorenzo then has a 'senior moment', on air. "And would you look at that! there's my granddaughter right on the bridge there! Hi Bianca!" The camera zooms in on a very embarrassed Bianca. Me and Latias howl with laughter at Bianca's expense. The screen cuts back to gramps and the presenter "If you won't mind me saying, you look a bit young to have a granddaughter!" he jokes. Lorenzo deadpans the presenter. "I'm 63 this November" He replies, making the presenter squirm and the crowd laugh.

"Annnny way..." the anchor says, desperate to change topic, "Who's do you think is going to win?" He asks. Lorenzo pauses, really thinking about it, before saying "Probably the guy who crosses the line first" whilst surely nodding his head. Globally, people thrust their palms into their faces. Presenter to the rescue, "Or gall". "Or girl, of course. Speaking of, here come the racers now, the first one a girl!". The presenter flicks through a fact sheet while the camera switches to a shot from the helicopter of the racers setting off from behind the pokemon center, the waves their floats are making looking pretty as they spiral out. "Lets go and look at them" Latias says, heading off down the canal to get the first look at the racers. She's not intending to go fast, as her wings are in an idle V shape instead of flat, but I follow her quickly anyway, cursing Latias' NO-WAITING approach to things. I get there, and Latias is perusing all the competitors.

"Too fat, Unstable, Pokemon is bored, Too thin, too old, Starmie? REALLY?, Inexperienced, TOTAL Moron". I see the total moron in question. Its Jay, fresh from the studio. I hope something bad happens to him, or I'll have to engineer it that way. The racers are all making their way to the start line, all manor of water pokemon tugging at their harnesses. We fly directly over them, surrounded by the houses that are built right on the canals edge, getting a view that the woman with the microphone from the studio can only dream of.

Soon, they are all floating there on the water, ready to start. An official with a megaphone speaks through it. "2 minutes to race. Brief rule recap" They'll have agreed to the rules when they signed up, but the key ones are said now so there's no 'for-get-ing' them.

"3 laps. Follow the course arrows, your floats are tracked and so any detour from the route will lead to IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION. Contact between float hulls is allowed where it it safe, but on corners or within 1 meter of a wall, no intentional contact is permitted. This is also tracked via your float. No mid-race pokemon battles, full stop. You may continue the race if you capsize, but only a maximum of 3 times and you must right yourself within 30 seconds. Wear your floatation jacket and helmet at all times. Any questions?"

The girl who was first out raises her hand. "Yes?" the megaphone enquires. "What are the rules concerning the float not being in contact with the water?". The official pauses before responding. "Section B.8 says that if the float goes out of the water for any more than 1 second at a time, the racer is disqualified.". The girl snaps her fingers as if some plan of hers was foiled. No more time for any questions though, the timer on the screen ticks to 00:15. The official once more pipes up. "RACERS! Get ready!". Latias has disappeared under the water, perhaps to get a better view. "10 SECONDS". The other official raises a starting pistol. "ON MY MARK!". A beeping starts off from the screen, at one second intervals. The final, 6th beep is higher pitched than the others, and happens at the same time as the starting pistol.

All the racers explode over the line. Correction, almost all of them. One racer, the one Latias was swimming under, just capsizes on the spot. Guess who, its Jay. He's either been his typical overinflated self, or Latias has been involved. Its a good job his ego isn't too big, he could drown. Oh, wait it is. At least he's got his life jacket. Regardless, this is a good thing. He's last, and its going to take some effort to catch up. Much happier, I set off after the others, who have just passed under the bridge where Bianca is.

It really is a thrill for me to chase after them, barelling down the canal, water underneath, walls either side and the occasional test of skill that is a low bridge. Try and squeeze under or pull over the top? Squeezing between the water and the bridge if fun, because I try and flatten myself out as much as possible and get to feel every feather push the air out of the way. Going over the top is cool too, because the force caused by the rapid change in directions (A/N: We call it g force) makes all my insides wobbly and pulls at my wings.

I go underneath the first bridge - you dont get any low bridges on the main canals - where Bianca and the others are stood. If I'd wanted to, I could have caught up in milliseconds. But I had adapted a leisurely pace, and catch up with them at the first corner. Latias is under the water, but at the same level as me as far as the race is concerned. I do a barrel roll, tilting my left wing tip and making me aerodynamically unstable, just because I can. We're now caught up with the racers, who are tightly packed in the centre of the canal, having just turned the first corner. The first corner was onto this other major canal, so it was big and wide, meaning no accidents, but wait for it. The ones who've seen this before are vying for the racing line. The noobs (as Bianca calls them) are doing seemingly completely random manoeuvres in an effort to overtake, as their all at the back and unaware what the racing line is. There's hull contact aplenty, as they zip past closed waterways with camera boats floating at the edges. They rotate round to follow the action. Me and Latias still have the best seats, swimming under or floating above the centre of the group. They've just come into the second corner, a tight right angled right turn, when I turn to see how far behind Jay is. As I do he turns the first corner, appearing just as I turn to face the rest of the racers, the first of whom are turning the second corner. All the pros slow down, but the noobs stay at their maximum speed, the pokemon not experienced enough to realise what the result is of this is going to be.

Sure enough, a noobs whynut has collided with a pros float, who had slowed down to take the corner. This throws the pros float about, but he stays put. Unknown to him, this swaying has put him at a slight angle that he is being pulled at, so when he gets to the corner, he finds himself flying further outwards than intended. I quickly fly to the outer wall, ready for the inevitable that happens almost every year. Sure enough, the pro who was unbalanced looses his grip round the corner, as his starmie speeds up to avoid being shunted again. He's sent airborne to the wall. I'm there already though, so instead of him hitting sun baked bricks, he hits a smooth Latios pelt instead. Not that his brain knows that. The rest of the racers pass by without incident, learning that perhaps corners do require a slower speed. Jay, meanwhile is about 4 seconds behind the back of the group. The poor pro has just got back on his float when Jay speeds past at a ridiculous rate, spraying the pro with water and making him fall in again. Jay just laughs as he takes the corner. I'm about to show him the meaning of "inappropriate application of psychic power", but realise it would be much better If I wait until he's back in the lead. I zip off after him though, then pass him, causing as much air disturbance as possible. The wind hits him, and he visibly struggles for balance, but stays put. Good. I want him to catch up with them so I can exact some proper justice.

I can't help but feel sorry for his swampert though. Jay really has chosen the wrong pokemon. Yes, its fast. But its VERY big, so if he wants to overtake he can only do it in about 7 of a possible 20 canals that the race route entails. It also has got to watch out in the corners, which Jay isn't doing. ^Suprise suprise^.

Latias has stayed with the other racers, but I catch up quickly as this next straight isn't that long. The noobs have all slowed down for this corner, having seen the damage that the last corner did. However, the pros know that this corner is wider and can be taken faster, so they egg the pokemon on. The result is the noobs falling behind and the pros pullingahead even more, with a few straddlers in the middle.

In any other race, the winner would always be a pro. But because of the course and the unique contact allowed rules, the Tour de Alto Mare often has winners who have entered the race only once. Hence its attractiveness to tourists, as they either want to compete or want to watch people fall over. Which is also why when its on TV its classed as a comedy.

The noobs are catching up again, as the pros have slowed down for the next corner. The noobs are snapping right at the pros heels, but the pokemon can't find any gaps. That is, until, a tododile looses its temper with the entire affair and dives under the water, cutting a path underneath the pros. This pulls the poor trainer along, above the water, and directly into the two pros blocking his way. They both fall in, and are dodged by the trailing noobs (though they get clipped in the helmet a few times). The tododile, meanwhile, has broken the pros ranks and so resurfaces, babbling to his trainer about how well he's doing. The trainer just has time to shout up before the tododile swims at full speed at what looks like a solid wall, but is actually Latias' wing.

The race progresses in a similar fashion: 1 or 2 racers occasionally falling in on the corners, with Jay slowly catching up on the straights. Anytime someone looks like their going to slam into a wall or fence me or Latias would shield them.

All too quickly, lap one is done. The main canal is the longest straight, and its wide enough for Jay's swampert to be able to overtake. I'm flying directly next to Jay, effectively cruising. Even though swamperts pulling its trainer at full pelt, he's barely passing 40mph so I've got my wings up and angled so that the front of them is towards me and the back of them away, directing most of the air to the side of me, but also generating some airflow that is spilling onto Jay's float, making it ride lower on one side than it is on the other.

Jay has already overtaken the noobs, and is in the process of overtaking the pros. We cruise past the start line and screen, catching a blast of Lorenzo's excited speech: "-omes Jay, overtaking on the out-" before we're out of range, the sound of the water and jostling overriding the speakers. Jay starts heckling the other racers. "Loozers! See that girl up there?". He lets go of the bar with one hand and points to Bianca. "That's my girlfriend!". All the racers bar the girl and a boy wearing sunglasses fall for this simple rouse, and look up towards her. She swoons and blows Jay a kiss. Meanwhile, Jay has taken advantage of his distraction of the other racers and overtaken the majority, settling into 3rd as they round the courses first corner for the second time.

I hear a splash behind me, and turn to see what it was. It was, Latias had come out of the water slightly behind me. She carries on above the water, but starts shaking her body rapidly, starting at her back fins and ending at her head, shaking off the water droplets. She always does this when she comes out of the water, but there's no point in my opinion, as the water falls off our feathers quickly as we fly anyway.  
Jay's out in front, so I recon we need to do something about that...

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Yes readers. That's right. I managed to work in a sarcastiquote, which is what this ^ symbol is, and its used to define sarcastic passages of text or speech. Also, I'm aware that invisibility is not actually impossible under the laws of physics, light or thermodynamics, and neither is Levitation. Both can be achieved though manipulation of the objects component Schrodinger waves and Higgs field relationships, but Latios doesn't know that. Most PEOPLE don't know that!

Also, does anyone think the coverage of the Olympics on the BBC is getting scaringly close to how the hunger games is presented? As I'm writing this they're going on about a tragic love story of two athletes who couldn't enjoy a relationship because of the games. Its a good job they don't have an opening ceremony where they parade the competitors in a big circle... Oh, Wait...

And for the record, TEAM GALE! Jokes... Peeta all the way! Just kidding...

Read and Review as always!


	5. Chapter 5: And the winner is

Just this chapter left, then normal life resumes for a bit.

Its occured to me that while writing from hallucinations means you dont get writers block, as you're just remembering stuff, It has the downside of having certain aspects which can't be expressed through words or gestures or speech, like odd colors or emotions... Anyway, moving on

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**Chapter 5: And the winner is...**

Me and Latias are now flanking Jay at an altitude of about 3 meters, totally invisible to the people below.  
Jay's at the front of the group of pros, who are trying everything they can to tip him over, bar pokemon attacks. Jeering, Splashing and Jostling are all things they've tried in an effort to put him off, including various shouts doubting the integrity of the girlfriend he was so desperate to point out and show off. I dont blame the racers for having a go at Jay, he's an idiot. But they should leave Bianca out of it. At any rate, its time for something unfortunate to happen to Jay. I can speak to Latias, as the sound of rushing water drowns us out, and the racers are much to engaged to notice. "We need to deal with Jay" I coo over to Latias, who nodds in agreement. We break our one sided conversation to observe a corner, or more specifically, the racers going round the corner. Sure enough, a pro looks like he's going to collide with a wall. I dart down and ahead, reaching the wall before the racer despite the fact that I was twice the distance away. The racer bounces safely off my invisible this, there are certainly less people falling off, as the noobs become wise to the course. I fly back up to and follow Latias who has just turned the corner. I do to, rotating myself sideways and flattening my wings out, meaning I can take the corner at maximum speed.

We're both round the corner and continue plotting Jay's downfall. "Its got to be something he causes himself" Latias says. I agree. If he does it himself, Bianca won't give him the "Its not your fault, I thought you were great" treatment. "Yeah." I say, nodding my approval. Within seconds, I have it. It may not be the most self-inflicted kind of justice, but it will be sweet, which is what revenge is all about.

I wait until Jay's on a long, stretch. Cameras bob up and down in the side streets, which is a bonus. I want Bianca to see this. Jay is barelling down this section, which must really be tiring the swampert. As predicted, he's making the swampert use hydro cannon from its hands underwater, propelling him along. That's got to be tiring for the poor thing, which is why all the others are swimming. I dive into the water ahead of him, not concentrating how nice it feels for now, just waiting for the incident I'm about to cause. He gets closer. 10 Meters. 5 Meters. NOW! The moment he's in range, I send a burst of psychic that is intended to give the swamperts arm a muscle twitch. It does, to a catastrophic effect. Swamperts arm now facing upwards and other of the water, the hydropump continues, slamming into Jay's chest. At the same time, this upset in balance on the swampert and makes him spin in the water, twisting the lines on its harness so harshly that Jay is flipped over too. It reminds me quite a lot of the washing machine at the dry cleaner that Bianca took me too once. He's just been through the spin cycle. Naturally, he can't possibly remain on the raft, and the inevitable result is him flying through the air and into the water, with a loud, satisfying, PLOP! Underwater, I see his face. Shock, Suprise and Anger. His face is so red with anger, he could boil the water around him. His life jacket pulls him back to the surface, where several racers promptly collide into him. They could have dodged, but I sense they didn't much like him either. Jay stays where he is for a second, until a judge on the sidelines shouts. "30 SECOND RULE!". Jay jolts and swims over to his float, before climbing on and yelling at swampert. Luckily, swampert seems to be used to his idiot and I can tell by his underwater muttering that he isn't taking Jay's insults personally.

Exactly one lap later, in the same spot as his last capsize, Jay yet again captures the lead, much to the contempt of the rest of the racers. "WHOO YEAH!" Jay yells as he sails past a camera. Me and Latias are yet again plotting his downfall. We've retreated to above the rooftop height and then some, about the same height as the helicopter. Alto Mare is laid out like a map below us, and the closed waterways indicate the race route, so its easy to pick out.

I hear Jay's whooting, even from up here. My hearing is very sensitive, but I recon the reason I hear it so well is because he's too loud and obnoxious. Me and Latias hold a talk. "I want him to fail JUST BEFORE the finish line" Latias says "being that close and failing... That'd demorolize him for sure" Latias says. "Yeah, but then he'll boast about 'how close' he was" To indicate my point, I unfold my arms from my sides and move my claws close together, attempting to mimic what Bianca does when she tries to indicate small margins. Bianca, however, has thumbs, so the gesture - which looked fine when she did it - looks like I'm trying to squeeze an invisible golf ball. "He'll just go on about how he's DEFINITELY going to win next time" I conclude. Latias disagrees, and this is reflected in her body manor. She's picked up some human mannerisms: Shaking her head instinctivly when she disagrees, the basic facial maneuvers for frowning and her own adapted version of crossing her arms, which Bianca frequently does when she strops. Latias version is simpler, taking into account the fact how our arms are shorter. It involves pulling her left arm - red facing outward - across her front, then putting her other arm in the same way, just lower down and angled downwards slightly. This projects the attitude that she's on the defensive and possibly apprehensive.

Not that I need these visual cues, as I've become adept at reading her aura - something that i've yet to manage with Bianca.

The most interesting trait though in my opinion is how she floats at an angle when she's disagreeing, like now. She's floating upright, but tilted slightly to the right. This looks somewhat like when teenage girls on TV are pretending to have an attitude, and they tilt their heads (and make a snapping noise with their fingers. I think it involves breaking their bones, so i've never tried). Latias has mimicd the gesture, but with her entire body. I have to admit it makes her look like she's got an attitude.

"Well I think its better then whatever you'll want to do". Typical Latias. No tact, just 'I'M BETTER THAN YOU, REGARDLESS OF HOW GOOD YOU ARE'. Which is why I hardly ever win an argument with her. I suspect that the same thing will happen this time, and the racers are almost at the three-quarters mark, so there'll be no time for whatever extravagance I'll churn out. The moment I start saying "Okay", she's gone. I jet off after her at a slower pace, deciding to sit back and watch whatever plan Latias has in store.

I let her to her own devices, and fly down to the main canal to watch. I look for somewhere to rest, even if its only for a minute. Swimming through water is harder than flying through air, as there's more 'stuff' to propel myself through. On the other hand, floating in water is easier than hovering in air, as there's more to support you in water than in air. Either way, I'm tiring and look for a place to lie down, not to sleep, just to stop using psychic. I curse my lack of feet. If I had clawed feet there would be plenty of places to perch. But nowhere to lie down. I sigh. The racers and Latias are probably only 3 minutes away. Lorenzo is still commentating, occasionally being interrupted by a factoid from the normal presenter. I'm floating half in the water, half out, when there's a lull in the racing activity, and the presenter asks Lorenzo for a brief recap of the legend of Alto Mare. "The legend states that an evil force once stood to destroy this town, but that a Latios " That's my father, not me, "Managed to stop them, flooding the town in the process and making these waterways which we race on today!" Lorenzo says, having settled onto his "tourist guide" demeanour.

"I see" nods the presenter, then he continues "Are your cufflinks related to the legend, per chance?" The camera zooms in on them, and Lorenzo has to stop using hand movements as he talks about them. "Yes, indeed. The one on my left is Latios, the one on my right Latias, and you can tell this because Latios's neck is slightly longer and Latias has bigger 'shoulders'. Latios is also a little bigger but these cufflinks don't show that in order to keep symmetry, I think". The presenter starts asking a questing "How do you know what each one lo-" but is interrupted by Lorenzo, "OOOH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!". Its so loud I here Lorenzo's actual voice from the balcony, not the speakers. On the screen, I can see a jittery image of a noob clattering head over heals on the 2nd to last corner. "This must mean their coming round for the finish!" The presenter says, getting increasingly excited.

"And its Jay Will out in front with the racing line in the last corner, Max Jacobs in second with Lucia Edwards in third, but she's catching up, powering around that last corner, This is close, about 20 meters left but milimeters between second and third, but Jay is WAY out in front, its good as gold for him!" The main presenter rattles out quickly

What he and everyone else can't see is Latias, who is sort-of tracking Jay. Weirdly, it seems like she's tracking the wave that he's created going round the corner water than Jay directly, but it's got to be part of her plan. Sure enough, the bow wave seems to grow to an abnormal height, as if the waves from the other racers have added up. The wave speeds up, splashes up against the wall, multiplies in height and heads towards Jay, who is too busy showboating despite having not actually crossed the line yet. So sure of his victory, he pulls on swamperts harness, ordering him to slow down, which he does. This effectively seals the deal for Latias, who appears to have used a surf attack to make the wave and then added a psychic to control it and make it look natural.

Jay turns around, intending to jeer at the not-yet-loozers. Instead, he sees a 2ft wave coming towards him. It doesn't look particularly impressive, I presume so that it doesn't attract attention, but if Latias wants to actually make Jay fail, there needs to be something else. Jay's swampert is about 50cm from the finish line when the wave hits Jay's float. Latias appears to have used her psychic on the float, because the wave seems too small to do what is does, which is flip Jay over totally. I realise that she's just used the wave as a disguise, as just tipping the float over would have attracted suspicion. Having fallen off 3 times, the official with the megaphone makes an announcement. "JAY WILLS AND HIS SWAMPERT ARE DISQUALIFIED!". As none of Jay's float or swampert actually crossed the line, he can still be disqualified, which he was. As soon as the announcement ends, both of the other racers cross the line at almost exactly the same time. I can tell that the girl won, but my eyes run faster than human eyes, so they go to a photo finish, not that I care. Jay failed and that's all that matters.

"Well after Jay's CALAMATOUS mis-judgement of that wave, it'd down to a photo finish!" With that, the screen cuts across. All eyes are on the pictures of the two pokemon edging closer to the line, so Latias manages to burst out of the water with no one noticing the splash and its invisible source. Humans dont pay much attention. She flies over to me, but its so quiet with everyone holding their breath for the result that we can't talk. Instead, I fly up to the balcony and Lorenzo, and Latias follows. The presenter is stood on the balcony, looking at the big screen with his hand shading his eyes, speaking intently into his microphone, "And it looks... like... the winner... by the tiniest of margins... is..." You can hear a pindrop. The screen advances to the final frame, which is - As I'd expected - The girls polywhirl touching the line while the boys carvanha is close, but a bit off. A tick appears next to the girls pokemon, with her name beneath it. "Lucia Edwards!" the presenter shouts, as most of he crowd cheer, not supporting anyone in particular. "Join us after this break when we present the medal!" the presenter signs off, before waiting a second and then grasping Lorenzo's hand firmly. "Good job, come with me.", leading him in from the balcony and deeper into the studio. I dont really want to follow, I just want to go home and nap. The crowd that aren't cheering are filtering out. Bar one, Bianca, who is on her phone. I see this as I fly lazily down to her.

If I talk or telepath to her, she'll make me and Latias carry the stuff back, which I don't want. To avoid doing more work, I plunge downwards into the canal, before 'swimming' off towards the secret garden.

Having lived here and having an aerial view of the town my entire life, so I'very figured out the way to go pretty quickly - Turn left at the 3rd intersection, then a right, two lefts, a slight left, a right through the wall and I'll end up at my pond. Alto Mare isn't made with a grid in mind: the watery canals dont have any pattern, and the footpaths and bridges that people can walk on follow no pattern either and have to dodge bits of water to make the amount of bridges as few as possible. The net result is a place that is impossible to navigate if you dont have an integral knowledge of it, like me or the boys who captain the water taxis that are floating above me even now. Speaking of above me, I dip my wings slightly and spread out. I want as little disturbance as possible to show on the surface and so adjusting my wings like this should mean the water flows over my wings and gets sucked to the back of them with as little displacement as possible, meaning only a tiny wave is visible on the surface. You could easily associate it with the wind. I also slow down a bit. Its harder to go fast underwater and going fast only produces a big wave anyway, and I can't do that because people are about. I content myself at a leisurely speed.

I arrive at the wall and go straight through it, still flinching in case its the wrong one. I've done that once or twice before, but my snout is incredibly sensitive. They (well, Bianca's water safety teachers) say if a sharpedo goes rouge and attacks you, poke its nose with a stick, because its the most sensitive bit of their body. Well my snout is 8 times as sensitive. So colliding with a wall head first is something that really hurts and so I try to avoid at all costs. But I'm through it, and meters from the end of this underwater passage.

Contry to popular belief, Lati's dont have gills, and can't ingest water to use for breathing. I know because I've tried, and ended up waking up on dry land, being given mouth to mouth by my sister. I don't know where she learnt it, but it was still weird. But we can hold a lot of breath, and hold it for a very long time. This is the reason we eat a lot. According to pokemon scientists who've studied similar pokemon, the body trades oxygen for what food is (I forget it. Something to do with sugar) and so can use very little oxygen but in return use quite a lot of food. So I can hold my breath for about an hour, which i've not done here, but I was tired to start with. I'm now tired AND hungry. I'm at the pond now, and burst - unenthusiasticly and slightly sluggishly mind - out of the pond, before flying horizontally to my snack bush that's deep in the garden. It's where I go when I'm hungry and Bianca wont feed me, or isn't around. Its got many types of berry bush in it, but a larger amount or Oran that any other. I find an Oran berry now, and delicately pluck it from the bush. Delicately isn't the right word though. The berry resists and I squeeze it harder, at which point the berry splits open and my only reward is berry goo on my claws. I lean my neck over, carefully lick the good off them, and try again. This time I fold my arms in and just berry my head in the bush, picking the berries with my teeth and eating them on the spot. Its not pretty, but it works.

Having eaten about half a kilo of assorted berries, I decide its time to lie down. I dont want to fly anywhere though, so I just float gently downwards until my stomach touches the floor. I give up the floating all together, flopping down on the ground in front of the berry bush. I curl my neck around so I'm facing my own 'tail', before closing my eyes for a brief sleep.

aaaand that's the last of the plot/action chapters for now. For the foreseeable on its just normal life for Latios.

As always, Read and Review no matter what you think, Good, Ok, Normal, Average or even Abominable.


	6. Chapter 6: Frisbee

So, back to the average day for Latios. No more racing or anything exciting. Or is there? You decide.

Oh, Reviewers: Cheep the Hedgehog - Yeah. But you know what annoying people are like. They never go away.  
An7 - Glad you think its good! Thanks!

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**Chapter 6: Frisbee**

I'm asleep. That I know. Psychic types can lucid dream (A/N: Lucid dreaming is defined as the state of being asleep and dreaming, and aware of this) easily, and often without intending it, which is what has happened now. Hence I'm aware of the fact that I am sleeping. Right now, I'm victim to my own subconscious, myself. Apparently, its a healthy thing for Psychic and dark types to do. It keeps them in check with reality. Or at least, that's what... someone said. A box? A person. Cube. Cuboid. Parralellagram?

Language falls apart in this world. If I can call it a world? Even space. Its not the normal 4 dimensions. I can see and interact in so many realities at once, but none of them are real. Not world, not world at all. Existence. None of it makes sense, my mind says, but my minds the one in control here, and he's not listening to himself, me. Things flit past one version of me. Words. Not sounds, not pictures, not smells or a sense of any kind. The words are just there. I can't understand them, but I know what they mean. They are saying what I'm thinking. Conditional if, reference this, objectional sleeping, reference again, then verb resting, pointing me in total. I dont know how long that takes. Minutes, Mileniums, I can't tell.  
Then, after a length if something that definitely isn't time, something happens. All the faux-colors in all the unreal worlds start to fracture, split up, and fly right at me. The shift shards color, me intermittent collide.

Suddenly, Darkness.

I can hear breathing. It matches how I'm breathing. In... Out... In... Out... So I must be hearing my own breathing. That's a relief. Dreaming dragons don't hear their own breathing. Far off, I hear water splashing. I must be in the garden, and the sound of water must be the pond. For some reason, I sense aura close to me. Very close. It must be Latias. I fell asleep and Latias is using me as a pillow. Yeah. Except, Latias' aura isn't like this one. and her breathing is very close. And very shallow. And it smells like cheese and onion flavor crisps. Something is really wrong with the whole set up, so I open my eyes.

"HI LATIOS! What happened to your nose?" Shouts the most irritable voice in the world, which is no more than 10cm from my face.

I have trouble focusing, I wasn't expecting something so close. Eventually, I see it. And I hate it so much, I lower my head so my snout isn't in the way, and headbutt it with my entire might.

Jay reels back, clutching his forehead and cursing.

"LATIOS! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!" With that, Bianca (who must have been at the side of Jay) slaps my snout. I must have really gone too far headbutting Jay, because she knows how much it hurts. It's a very direct and very harsh method of disciplining us and she copied it from when people house train poochyanas. "Jay only wanted to play with you and you decide to be violent!" she shrieks. I dont need this, having just woken up and all. I try to explain myself looking up at her, my body still on the ground, snout in all sorts of stinging and burning types of pain. Its the picture of submission "It's instinct. He startled me! He could have woken me a better way. YOU could have woken me." But of course, I'm speaking in Lati, and she doesn't understand me. Bianca stares blankly. "Latios. I dont understand what your saying, but what I will say is Dont Do It Again! And we'll close the matter there".

Unfortunately, Jay's too much of an idiot to realise I have a memory longer than 10 seconds, and he gets up and starts talking to me like we're best friends and I've not just attacked him out of pure hatred. "Latios!" - Why does he feel the need to say my name before everything? I don't see any other 2 meter long psychic dragons lying in the middle of the garden - "Why don't you come and play with me and Bianca?". It doesn't sound like a request.

I unfold my claws from my side. Its obvious I'm not going to get ANY sleep now. I briefly wonder how Latias has managed to escape this torture.

With both of the couple now looking at me and hoping for me to tag along, I float up rapidly to head height, staying horizontal and moving my wing tips back but keeping them in a v shape vertically. I straighten my neck though, and lower my head. It looks like I'm almost ready to accelerate to Mach 1. Idiot has the sense to move a few steps back, looking up at me, looking slightly worried. At least I still look threatening. "Stop glaring Latios, You look intimidating." Is Bianca's response. I force a smile. "Better".

Bianca leads the way to chequed red and white blanket spread on the ground in a clearing. On it is a basket, with various foodstuffs spilling out the top. I smell the sugary twang of some sort of jam and the salty smell of some sort of fish, plus the smell of some kind of cheese? Each corner of the square of cloth is pinned down with a rock, but other than that the blanket is bare and just about big enough to accommodate 2 people lying down. Which means I'll be laid on the grass. A caterpie is working its way towards the basket. "Latios, deal with that caterpie?" Bianca says, halting when she gets within sight of it. She doesn't like bug types. I decide to put on a show, perhaps it'll put Jay in his place.

I fly over to the caterpie, folding my 'arms' in in the process. I once I get there, I tilt my body forwards almost entirely, face facing the ground. Blood rushes to my head and I feel dizzy, but it will be worth the reaction from the caterpie. I wait a bit until the caterpie gets to just under my snout. Its so busy following the smell on its quest for food that it hasn't even noticed me. I click my tongue - I think the human equivalent is coughing - prompting the caterpies attention. It looks up, its large head and big bug eyes taking in my vast bulk, power and legendry status all in one go. It starts shaking quite a lot. I lean further, raise one 'eyebrow' and say "No" in the softest Lati voice I can muster.

The caterpie practically does a flip, before motoring all of its tiny legs as fast as possible in an effort to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. I smile, briefly enjoying my power. Then I feel sad for the poor thing. It probably just wanted food in the exact same way that I retreated to my bush when I was hungry. I hope the poor guy finds some other food elsewhere. I hope he doesn't have a family to feed, because then...

"AH HAHAHAH!" Jay bursts out laughing. "Did you see the way that bug tore outta there! Oh my ARCEUS that was funny!" While he's doing that, he walks over to me, laughing the entire time. "I tell ya Latios," With this, he pats my mid-section. This I hate more than him waking me up. The only people who are allowed to touch me are Bianca and Lorenzo. And certain other pokemon, but they aren't people. Jay isn't my owner, he isn't even my career. I growl intently, barring my teeth. Its a low grumbling sound that comes from my body, not my throat like the rest of my vocalisations. Its so unlike my normal noise that Jay withdraws his hand and stops what he was saying.

Now perhaps I'm being a bit to instinctive and old fashioned with the whole Only People I Say Can Touch Me thing. After all, Latias loves her feathers so much that she practically shoves them onto every surface capable of touch just to hear it say how nice her coat is. But on the other hand, it's MY coat, and I just don't want morons like him touching it.

That said, Bianca yet again cautions me. "Latios" she says, emphasising the 'lat' and 'i', elongating the 'o' and 's'. "Calm down. He's not going to hurt you." I realise that in my anger I've unwittingly started doing all the physical cues I do when I'm threatening something (like an arrogant tourist machamp). My feathers are extended outwards slightly - making me look bigger -, My wings are completely level, angled really far back, my ears are arched back too and my tail feathers are rigid, not their normal wavey. I'm also floating with my lowest bit at head height. I must look very intimidating...

I calm myself down for Bianca's sake, and bring myself to normal altitude, hovering at 45° with my head at human head height. She wants to enjoy this, she's clearly made the effort to prepare the food and blanket, and I'm not going to be the one who ruins it.

After a slightly awkward silent moment, Bianca walks over to the blanket and sits down. She's arranged her legs so that they angle towards her back, her hands are behind her, on the ground supporting her. Jay also saunters over, sitting next to her, stretching his legs all the way out, putting his arm around Bianca's shoulder, before giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you babe, this is perfect. Its just you, me, a legendery, and this wonderful food". Bleagh. I'm capable of throwing up, the ambience right now is so sweet. How Bianca isn't cringing right now, I dont know. "Geeze!" Bianca exclaims. "Is all you lads ever think about food?". I'm almost about to nod, but Jay interrupts. "Well, yeah. Other than when I'm thinking about you."

Now is it me? Or has the stench of cheese here gone from mild cheddar to mouldy stilton (That's Lorenzo's favorite, apparently. It smells like feet to me. Or is that feta?)

Bianca gushes. "Oh Jay, cut that out. Look at Latios. You've woken him to come and play and instead he's floated here awkwardly". Its true. I'm still floating here, looking down at the 'lovely couple', feeling a bit stupid. I think Bianca would call it "being a third wheel", though I don't understand what that means...

"I know what you want" Jay grins, looking at me. With this, he produces a multicolored round disk-shaped object from behind his back. Quite where he kept it I've no idea. But it ruins the moment. "Oh, the frisbee!" Bianca perks up. "He'll love that!".

I do not love the 'frisbee'. I do not even like the 'frisbee'. It gives the impression that I'm a mindless pet, who has an attachment to catching whatever is thrown in front of it. However, since whenever we play with it Bianca ends up leaning over laughing or at the very least proud of me, it's not that bad. It also occurs to me that I've never actually told them what I feel about the frisbee, so their totally entitled to think I enjoy it. In some ways, I suppose I do. Not only am I making Bianca happy - in turn making me happy - but I have to admit, flying through the air trying to pursue something that someone thinks I can't get is kinda-fun. And its also shows Jay who's stronger, as he's the one who throws it.

So for now, I'll enjoy this. I rear up, copying the way Latias cheers when she's happy, making a shrill noise that wobbles slightly. While I'm doing that, I rotate to float vertically, wings out, smiling with my head looking at Bianca. "Yeah!" Bianca cheers, standing up. "Now come over here!" she says as she pats her knees twice rapidly, presumably to attract my attention (which is pointless. I'm looking right at her). We've done this a few times, so I know what she wants me to do. I hover over to her side. I then rotate round so I'm facing the same way as her, before rotating so my entire body is horizontal in relation to the ground. I pull my ears back and make my neck straight with my head ducking in the process, ready to accelerate quickly. I keep my wings in the V shape though, pointing towards the sky and keeping out of Bianca's way. She steps forward, grabbing the skin on the back of the middle of my neck. This isn't as painful as it sounds - in fact, it isn't painful at all - because like most pokemon, there are very few nerves and very tough skin in that particular area. Something about mothers carrying them in their mouths, though I dont even remember my parents.

Next, Jay arrogantly jumps to his feet, folding his legs underneath himself before propelling himself upwards and locking his knees. This is the most inefficient way to stand up in my opinion, but who am I to tell him how to do things? He walks over to the opposite side of the blanket. Bianca is stood between me and Jay, on the edge of the blanket, holding on to me with her right hand, whilst Jay is about two meters away, poised ready to throw the frisbee. "Ready?" Bianca says to both of us. "SURE AM!" Jay shouts, while I give a small yip that passes for yes. "PULL!" Bianca shouts, and Jay starts to rotate round, spinning on through balls of his feet. He rotates once, twice, then the frisbee is released from his catch is, I'm not allowed to go after it just yet, hence Bianca holding on to me. I stay still, tracking the frisbee with my eyes. Bianca counts down. "3... 2... 1..." And on 'zero' She releases her hand and ducks. Of course, I could set off wether she was holding me or not, but she could hurt her hand if I did, so I have to obay their 3 second rule. This, however, is irrelevant, as the moment she lets go I'm off.

My goal is simply to fetch and return the frisbee before it hits the ground. The wait at the start was added to give the frisbee a chance of getting there. I can get it this time, no doubt. But every time I do get it, they add a second to the wait time - taking one second if I fail - so the game gets closer and closer as it progresses.

The frisbee doesn't have a hope in this round though. I'm off like one of team rocket's heat-seaking missiles, except they take a while to accelerate. I'd say like a bullet, but they can't hone in on a target like I am doing now.

Either way, Bianca ducked when she let go of me, but I kept my wings raised anyway as she wouldn't have been able to duck fast enough to avoid them completely if they were down. The moment I'm clear of her though, I lower my wings so they are flat, and streamline my tail feathers. Due to my cautious set-up while I was setting off, my aerodynamic efficiency was not that good and setting off was difficult, as I had to forcefully displace a literal tonne of air. This also has the side effect of making the blanket fly backwards, despite its rock weights. Only Bianca keeps it pinned down.

"WOAH!" Jay shouts after my take-off, though I'm now too busy concentrating on the target to pass a remark. The frisbee is now approaching rapidly in my vision, but its at an angle to how I am. To be able to catch it (I have to use my mouth to grab it, the acceleration is too rapid to have my arms folded out) I'll have to go at a right angle to my current course, then tilt a bit to avoid trying to grab it length ways.

First, I rotate myself round so I'm now flying sideways, before angling my wings slightly backwards, immediately making me swoop right. Once I get to 90° from where I was before, I quickly do the reverse and angle my wings forwards, though less. This makes me do the wider arc that brings me in line with the frisbee. Next, I psychicly tilt myself a bit. My mouth is now lined perfectly up with the spinning disk, which in under a tenth of a second is clenched tightly between my teeth. Then, just for show, I barrel roll upwards before corkscrewing down, the rapid spiral finishing abruptly at Bianca and Jay's awed bodies. The wind from my abrupt stop rushes past them. Even though this is about the 8th time we've played, their still suprised.

I lean my neck down to Bianca, frisbee in my mouth. "Very good Latios!" Bianca says. Its a tad patronizing, so I resist her next move, which is to try and get the disk from my mouth. First she just tries to take it, grabbing it with her hand, expecting me to let go, which I dont. Then she tugs on it, the result being the same as if she was tugging on a beached wailord. Then she sighs affectionaty . "Oh right, come here!" I lean lower, and with that I get the scratch behind the ear that I wanted. I release the disk and it drops to the ground, plus a new set of bite marks. The thing looks chewed up enough already from the past games.

Then idiot chimes up again. "Very good Latios but next time let go of the disk when we say?". Ugh. I'm the one entertaining them, I think I deserve my ear-scratch reward. "Bianca! Ready for round two?" he asks. "Come on Latios!" Bianca says, grabbing my scruff (That the name of the back middle part of my neck) and pulling me round to the start position. I float passively, allowing Bianca to essentially drag me through the air to where she wants me to be, which is exactly where I was when we started the last round. She passes the frisbee to Jay, who gets ready to throw again. I get ready to fly again. Then the whole process is repeated: "PULL!" Bianca shouts, Jay throws the disk, and Bianca starts counting. "4...3...2...1..." and I'm released.

This time, he's thrown it a tad harder. While it HAS gone further, its also a lot straighter. So no fancy turning or rotation this time. For the simple fact that I'm bored, I fly slightly over it, then dip my head and snatch it from the air, before rocking my head back and flying upwards at the same time. I continue high up, to about 1000ft, before arcing backwards and heading towards the blown-back blanket on the ground, where I can see Jay and Lorenzo both looking up at me, shielding their eyes from the afternoon sun. I accelerate downwards quickly, Rolling around and around in the air until I'm at the tree level, where I do a flip so my face is now skyward, then drift downwards towards Bianca and Jay. As I'm drifting downwards, I realize I'm hungry, and eye the basket with the food in it. I can still smell the various delectables inside.

I go horizontal again and fly in a circle around them, hovering over the basket. I lie down on the grass, completely straight, with my wings at a right angle to my body and my head pointing at the basket. The frisbee is covering the top, making my intention clear.

"So you want lunch, Latios?" Bianca says. I nod and coo a bit. I also fold out my arms and lay them face down (blue bit up) on the grass, towards the basket. She makes that "Awww cute" sound. I glance at Jay, who doesn't look exactly thrilled. Is it because his girlfriend is giving me more attention? "How about one more round?" He asks, walking over to me, looking down at my face. I shake my head, the frisbee still in my mouth. "Come ON Latios!" The persistent so-and-so nags, at the same time grabbing hold of the frisbee, and then starts tugging it. Its his human power and grip versus my Dragon body, psychic power, vice like teeth grip and heavier weight. I growl a bit. Unsurprisingly, he gets nowhere. "Right then!" he strops. "Lunch it is!".

Bianca starts teasing him. She leans across and rubs his hair, putting on the voice she has when she's talking to a simpleton like a baby or a small pokemon: "Awwww! did ickle Jay get beaten by the bwig bawd dwagon?". Jay starts to sulk even more, making Bianca grin even more. He decides to make the diplomatic decision to prepare the blanket again, after it being blown back twice.

Meanwhile, Bianca has retrieved the frisbee from my mouth, setting it aside on the ground, enabling her access to the basket. She lifts the top on the basket. I peep over the edge, getting only a glance before she covers my eyes and pushes my head back. Because its Bianca, I dont resist like I did with Jay, just let her move my head back. "Oi! Stop shoving your nose in!" she says. I keep my head to where she pushed it too, watching as she picks up each item and places it on the blanket. A cheese. Some pre-sliced bread. A Jar of jam. Tub of butter, with a knife on top. Some chocolate spread. Fancy meat, A plate of pink fish. Two plates and a bowl. A plastic box with some pokeblocks on it.

Jay is sat on the blanket, and sets out the plates & bowl so that we're sat in a triangle. Interestingly, he's put my bowl on the blanket. So at least he's expecting me to join them, even if I am still partially on the grass. I float down to my bowl, doing the same pose that I did with the basket. I dont like the fact I've got the bowl and not a plate, but the plates she's got look like the fancy occasional ones. They're very expensive, so I dont blame her for getting me the bowl instead, I might break it. Bianca sees me waiting and sighs. "I'll do your food first eh Latios?". With that, she unceremoniously pours the tub of pokeblocks into the bowl, a few spilling over. I prefer human food to pokeblocks, and let the disappointment show on my face, which she picks up on. "Once you finish those, you an have some of our food". Even though I understand why she's doing this - Pokeblocks contain the amount of calories and other things I need, which human food wouldn't provide - it still irritates me.

While the two humans sit on the blanket and grab their various foodstuffs, I eat all the pokeblocks that spilled over. Their all sorts of candy-colored shapes. Each color defines the type its best for. So for me, a psychic dragon type, there are more purple - psychic - and navy - dragon - Because they contain the kinds of stuff I need. In addition, some other types are there as well. The red ones - fire - are there because one of my abilities is to breathe fire, and there's also creamy colored ones - normal - in there because I can do normal attacks. There's more of the above types than any other, but the mix also includes some aqua and green colored blocks, for water and grass respectively just to give it some variation. They all have different textures too, though this is random and not defined by the blocks color. Right now, for example, I'm chewing through a chewey psychic block, but there's another one just in front of me that looks like a jelly.

Pokeblocks taste OK to me. Not bad or good, just, OK. They might taste different to humans though, because Pokemon have more tastebuds, with different taste associations. It occurs to me that I have a human I can test it on now. Not Bianca, obviously. Jay. Right now he's biting into a jam & butter sandwich. Time to play the cute angle...

I levitate, attracting both humans's attention, before taking one of my claws and grabbing a crumbly (Its reminds be of the biscuits that Lorenzo gives out sometimes), cream colored pokeblock, which is just the right size for my claws to pick up. By now, both Jay and Bianca are looking at me, waiting for what I'm going to do. Bianca is chewing a sandwich, Jay's just holding the plate with his on, a bite taken out of it. I rotate round to face Jay and hold out my 'palm', the pokeblock resting in the middle. He looks at the block, then back at me.

"Awww! He wants to share his food with you!" Bianca cries. Jay reaches out his hand and takes it. "Th... Thank you?" He says unsurely. I stick my ground though, and continue to look at him. I've now successfully maneuvered the situation so that Jay has no option but to eat the block. "Well go on! Eat it!" Bianca encourages him. This is working EXACTLY as planned.

He glances one more time at me, before moving the block up to his mouth, holding it between his thumb and fore-finger, before taking a medium-sized bite from the corner, a few crumbs just falling onto his shirt. He continues to chew this small bite before swallowing hard. His face changes to look like he's trying to swallow his own mouth. "That's... That's rancid!" He manages to say, before coughing several times and spitting onto the grass. "Bianca babe, have you got a drink or something?" With that he starts coughing. Bianca dives into the basket, pulling out a popular-brand-sports drink with a squirty top. She passes it to a doubled over Jay, who snatches it and snaps the top off, before squiring half of it into his mouth. Bianca giggles. I have to keep up the pretence of the pokeblock being a good natured gift, so I look at the block - which was dropped on the ground in his haste to get a drink - and put the end of my snout right up to it. I then make a low, disappointed cooing noise.

"It's okay, Latios. Its not your fault Jay doesn't like it. Its the thought that counts" Bianca says, patting the middle of my right wing by way of consolation. I look up at Jay, who is glaring at me. Is it me, or is his eye twitching slightly? I fly back to my original spot next to my bowl. Content with the discontent i've caused, I start with my food. I dip my head into the bowl, chomping with my teeth at the same time. I end up with the chewed-up blocks in my mouth before I swallow. As I'm eating, the bowl is moving further and further forward, the blanket being pushed, So I keep having to shift myself forward in order to keep up with the plastic bowl.

I hear Bianca and Jay conversing. Until my now my eyes have been closed, but I open them and look at the person who's talking right now, which is Jay. I don't, however, stop eating though.

"So, what exactly happened to Latios' nose" he asks. I look left to Bianca, still eating my food. Bianca swallows her mouthful before answering, but when she does, she smiles. "Oh! Yeah. This morning, we tried to get Latios to make pancakes. He managed to make the batter alright after spilling half a bag of flour everywhere mind, but then he tried to start th hob to cook them. Only she switches the gas on but doesn't press the ignition? So he's like, confused or something, so he puts his face, like, really close up to it" she moves her palm close to her face to indicate a drastically emphasised distance ". So this silly bird " - she calls me a bird when she wants to annoy me. I'm a dragon really - "decides to light it with his claw or something, but while his face is still near it. So the flame goes all over him and burns the front of his snout!" Jay smiles. "Silly bird!" He says. If I wasn't eating, I'd swipe him. Its adorable when Bianca does it. When Jay does it he's just plain patronizing.

I look back to Bianca. She looks like Jay isn't quite amused as she expected. Suddenly she raises a hand. "I know!". That said, she jumps up and runs back in the direction of the house.

Leaving me alone with Jay. ^Fantastic^

* * *

The lucid dreaming bit at the start: If you've ever had a fever, you'll know an ounce of what its like. I've never lucid dreamed myself (don't have enough patience to try) but I did experience something like this in hospital, though weather it was in my dreams or not, I'm not sure. I was woken by a nurse with some throat medicine though, not an idiot with a frisbee. The whole situation is too confusing to bother trying to undertsand.

Dont worry, the existence of fish is explained in the next chapter.

Also, as of next Tuesday I'm doing some database programming work for a large-ish company that's paying me for the privilege (Not bad for a 16 year old) so updates won't be as recent as this will take a back seat. Wish me luck!

Also, what do you think to this chapter? If its bad I can't improve it unless I know what's bad about it, so tell me in a review. If I'm doing something right, again, let me know!


	7. Chapter 7: Fish

So. Latios is alone with Jay... Imagine that one person you really REALLY hate. Your locked in a room with them. What happens?

Yeah... And you don't have dragon powers.

Also, an internets goes to the person who can spot, so far, why this story is a bit (unintentionally) hamlet-esque.  
Reviewers:  
David Davidson - Thanks. Yeah, if Latios had a theme song, it would be trololol. Latias is more like nyancat I'd like to think.  
an7 - Thank you! I'm not really the English/Writing one in my family, that's my sister, who is always critical of my writing. So your compliment really means a lot to me, Thanks!

Anyway, on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Fish**

Jay looks down at me, still munching on my bowl of pokeblocks. The bowls designed for something with a mouth on the front of its snout, not the underneath, so there's quite a lot of pokeblock mush on my mouth when I move my head to look directly at him.

"I wonder what she's gone to fetch? eh?" He asks me. Its tone suggests I'm some sort of zigzagoon, because its higher than his normal gruff voice and he looks away immediately, not expecting a response. I go back to the almost empty bowl of pokeblocks.

"Wow, I'm talking to a dumb pokemon that doesn't even understand me. Huh. Its a new low." he utters.

He is SO dead. Before he can even sigh, I've flown up and butted him in his chest, flat onto his back. The sandwich that was on his plate goes flying. The plate, luckily, stays intact, having landed on the soft, blanket covered grass. He's stunned. Utterly silent. Good. While he's silent, he can't be insulting me. He's laid out, back to the floor, half on the blanket, half off. His knees are bent, his face the picture of fear and through his t-shirt I can see a rapid pulse. I'm hovering horizontally over him, looking him straight in the eyes, baring my teeth, neck straight as an arrow, wings flat and all the way short, looking as big and menacing as possible. He must be terrified. Good. Perhaps this raw show of power has shown him that I am not, in fact, just a "dumb pokemon".

In my mind, I'm picturing the various scenarios that I can play out. The current one involving using a flame thrower on his face. Somehow, I think its a bit drastic. Only a bit, mind.

All the time I'm mulling over my options, Jay is still quivering underneath me. But because it's Jay and he's apparently entitled to be oblivious to notice I could kill him, he says possibly the most ridiculous thing possible given the situation. "Latios, I know what your thinking but I'm not that kind of person. Pokephilia's kinda gross to me".

Here I am, all but ready to turn him into a crispsy char grilled Jay-corpse, and he's worried about... Ugh! He's too dumb for me to even educate him. And if I back away now he's going to think I'm accepting his sentence and that I'm that way inclined! I settle this with violence, by taking my left claw and wiping him across the face with the 'palm', so that my claws dont actually touch him. If I did it with my claws it'd cut his face open, and Bianca wouldn't like that, she's quite fond of that face for some reason. But I hit him with enough force to make him cry out. That felt good. After he's done yelping and clutching his hand to his cheek (which I'm happy to say is glowing red) he manages to speak up again. "Oh, so... your... not interested in...". I decide to give him a break and shake my head. "Oh, right!" he says, thoroughly delighted. I dont see why. He's still got an angry dragon lording over him. There is an awkward silence.

"Latios. Would you mind moving? Your kind-of scaring me, and I dont know why." I stay where I am, a few inches above Jay. Still defying him to get up.

The problem is, If I hurt him visibly, Bianca will be upset, and I dont like it when Bianca is upset. But at the same time, I can't stand Jay and his superior attitude. I notice the fancy China plate that remains unbroken on the grass, despite the heavy forces involved in getting it there. Well... If he can throw a plate on the grass and it not break, despite being very fragile, what's to say a less-fragile human can be thrown on the grass and not be fine? I can't think of anything, so that settles it.

I reach for Jay's shoes. The sudden moment makes him flinch. But before he can do anything, I've got a hold of his shoe. The underneath of them is rubber, so my claws dig in and hold it well. Next, I levitate up, bringing Jay with me. "LATIOS!" He shouts, realising my intent. He's not shouting angrily though. It sounds almost like fear. Good. I continue upwards, now everything but his head is off the ground. A few things fall out of his pockets: A phone, keys, wallet, some wires and... some pokeballs? He's not a trainer? Regardless, he's all the way off the ground now, about 3 ft, when he says something that makes me stop.

"Latios! Please! Stop! I don't know why your doing this, but whatever I've done, please, I'M SORRY!"

Actually... When I think about it, what's to stop him thinking I'm not simple minded? I haven't told him. I haven't explained why I dislike being called dumb. So he's kind of right to say that he doesn't know what he's done wrong. And he HAS apologised, which was all I wanted. Wasn't it?

I look at where I planned on throwing him. Its quite far away. And humans are in some ways more fragile than a China plate. Humans certainly drown easier.

I slowly hover back down, taking care over how slowly I lower Jay's head. Once that's on the ground, I release the shoe, dropping the rest of him. I'm still mad. That done, I head back over to my food and continue feeding, resuming the same position as before, closing my eyes, the best policy being to pretend nothing ever happened. I hear shifting behind me though, presumably Jay brushing off his clothes and putting stuff back in his pockets. To be sure, I prick my ears back. The sound is clearer. I can even hear him mumbling about "what could I have done?", though its too quiet to detect weather he's saying it with positive or negative intent.

Either way, after few minutes I hear him step back round to his place on the blanket, before a louder 'THUD' which indicates he must have sat back down. I open my eyes to check. Sure enough, he's sat down, legs crossed, reaching behind him to his left before pulling back the fancy plate, then again to the right to fetch the bitten and slightly lopsided sandwich. He's starting to turn around again, so I close my eyes. I dont want to look at him. A few seconds pass, the only noise being the sound of me chewing, crunching and squishing my way though the last pokeblocks. The bowl is now empty bar mush, so I start licking the sides, moving the bowl around the blanket as I go.

"Erm... Latios?" Jay says, quiet and considerate for once. I open my eyes, maneuver my ears to hear him better, and he continues. "Do you... Er... want the rest of this sandwich?" I look blankly at him, a tad suprised. His voice sounds like there's another meaning to this offer. What's his motive? Submission? Paying off the school bully, so to speak? Weakling. Apology? Its a pretty rubbish attempt at an apology, though he doesn't have much else to give me. Kindness? It's Jay - Kindness isn't a word you associate him with. Unless your Bianca.

Jay takes my hesitation as doubt (which it was) and starts to justify. "I've only had a bite, and its... its been on the grass... soo..." He rambles. Oh. I get it. He's just offloading the food he doesn't want. Its dirty. Its been on the floor, so I'll feed it to the thing which is eating out of a bowl and sleeps outside. Nothing deep. Just offloading unsatisfactory food. I don't bother being offended, because hey, free food is free food, plus it shows he knows that I'm tougher than him: He can't stomach dirty food, but I can. I raise my head from the bowl and nod, the rest of my body still on the ground. He pauses for a second, before taking the sandwich and putting it in the bowl. The sandwich is now upright in the bowl, angled away from me. I feel a bit humbled for some reason, but shrug it off. Jay has already started preparing himself another sandwich.

I tuck into my additional food, wondering about Bianca. What has she gone to fetch? When will she be back? The garden is big, but we're close to her house. Where is Latias? Why hasn't Lorenzo appeared yet?

This sandwich is nice though. Pecha berry jam on fancy bread with salty butter on. I happily coo while I eat it, eyes open and focused on the end of my snout. Just as I'm finished with the sandwich (the bowl having moved itself halfway across the blanket in the process) I hear footsteps coming from the direction if the house. That'll be Bianca. I hurry up licking the last few bits of berry jam from the bowl, before licking the surroundings of my mouth, collecting the remaining food. I float back up in enough time to see Bianca appear from behind a bush, carrying the laptop. Just after, Latias follows, flying up and to the left a bit, then swooping down and flying up and to the right, just behind Bianca. She does this when she wants to move fast but not overtake the person in front of her. Just another thing that makes her hyperactive, in my opinion.

"Cool, Latias!" Jay says, but with a little less vigor than before. Then, Latias catches sight of me and flys over Bianca and directly towards me, cooing loudly and excitedly. I hover up vertical, and fly away from the blanket, expecting a hug. Instead, Latias flys right behind me, does a u-turn around me before flying to where I just was and flopping down in front of my bowl, like how I was. She puts her head into the dish before cooing disapointedly, "Hey, Empty!".

Bianca has caught up by this point and is getting settled back down on the blanket. "That's MY bowl" I complain to Latias, who is licking the sides in an attempt to pick up the remains I'd missed. "Why dont you bug Bianca for your own?". Irritated by our jabbering while she's trying to talk to Jay, Bianca addresses us. "What are you two chatting about?". Both of us look at the bowl, Latias adding a nagging tone when she says "I want my bowl". Bianca, luckily, has had to deal with our vague gestures for ages and picks up pretty quickly. "Oh, you want your bowl?" she says, and she reaches into the basket, pulling out an identical plastic bowl to mine except hers is red. Latias flies up and starts fussing over it. "And some food in it!" she says as she flies around behind Bianca and tries to grab at the bowl over her shoulder with her mouth. Bianca brings out another box of pokeblocks, before emptying it inside the bowl and putting it down on the blanket about a meter to the right of mine. Latias instantly dives for it and starts eating before she's even laid on the ground. While she's eating, she floats down and round, ending up on the floor, wings resting on the grass at 90° to the rest of her body, laid on the ground, eating from the bowl with her eyes closed. I dont know why we close our eyes when we at from the bowls, we just do. I guess its because we can't see what we're eating anyway as its hidden beneath our snouts.

Bianca continues her conversation with Jay. "So yeah, look at this". She spins the laptop round and passes it to Jay, who takes it and rests it on his knee, and then presses a button. Noise starts to come out of the laptop. I want to see what Jay's looking at too, so I float up and round to look over his shoulder. I see the back of me floating in the kitchen on the screen. I'm just picking up the bag of flour from the cupboard. I recognise this as being the video of me trying to make pancakes this morning. One of my claws cuts into the bag as I'm carrying it over to the counter and flour starts trailing out. Jay smiles a bit.

Baring in mind he just ended up nearly being thrown the length of the garden for saying I was a dumb animal, perhaps letting him watch a video of me setting myself on fire whilst trying to cook a relatively simple meal isn't the best thing. I dont see a way to stop it though, so for now I sit and watch it. I have to admit it is quite funny when your not the one struggling to crack an egg, or use a whisk. Jay laughs in all the right places, though its a bit over the top sometimes. Then we get to the bit where I try to use the oven.

The on-screen me moves the dial on the cooker and then moves his head back a bit when the hissing noise starts, like I was startled by the lack of fire. The confusion visibly shows on my face when I turn my head slightly. My wings don't quite look right in the environment, and my confused face only adds to the feeling that I'm in a situation I wasn't designed to be in. I lean closer to the source of the hissing noise, then raise an arm and partially blocking the view of my snout from the camera. But you can see enough to get a rough idea of what happened next. The dragon on the screen points his claw at the top of the hob before jabbing it. We briefly see a few sparks, then the entire hob lights including the air around me. My response looks like I've been shot backwards out of a cannon. I fly backwards and into a table, at which point Jay bursts out laughing. The camera footage then goes wobbly, I presume from when Bianca started laughing and rolling on the floor. Eventually it gets better but its pointing at the ceiling. We hear Bianca laughing, then all of a sudden the screen goes black, with a little white arrow pointing in a circle on it. Jay is still laughing. I have to admit, it is quite funny.

He hands the laptop back to Bianca, who managed to eat a sandwich, feed Latias again and make her self another sandwich while we were watching the 25 minute video. I fly up from behind Jay and go over to Latias, flying down in front my bowl, before landing on the ground, mimicking the same pose I did when I was eating the last time. Except this time, my right wing is resting on Latias' left wing, because the bowls are only a meter apart.

I'm waiting here because at some point the humans will finish eating, which means we'll get scraps. Right now though, their both just talking. "So yeah, like, what was up with the race today then?" Jay starts off on his excuses, but I ignore it, noticing that whenever Bianca is around Jay, she says "Yeah" and "so, like" a lot more. Like he's famous and she can't believe she's got to talk to him. But he's not. Yet again, I don't quite understand the situation.

I hear the sound of the bowl scraping along the blanket. I look to my left, to see Latias licking the remains of what smells like it was a cheese sandwich from her bowl. When she's done, she looks at me. "I'm still hungry. You?" I say to her. Jay drones on in the background. "Yeah" She says. With that, we both stare at Bianca until she notices us. The context makes everything clear to her instantly. Both of us are in in front of our empty bowls, looking up at her with slightly sad eyes. "Your STILL hungry!" she says. both of us just say "yes", which is enough for Bianca. She gets out two slices of bread and holds one in her right palm, one in her left. "Come on then" she sighs and both of us fly up and over to Bianca. The fact that she's not holding them between her thumb and forefinger means she expects us to eat out of her hands. This isn't a very efficient way to feed us, so she must be doing it for show for her boyfriend. I dont really care, so long as I'm fed. Latias flies to Bianca's right hand and I fly to her left. Whereas Latias can fly horizontal and eat from Bianca's outstretched arms, I'm too long, I'd end up hitting Jay with my tail feathers. While hitting him is a good thing, I still don't want him touching me, so I fly up with my head down low and eat out of Bianca's hand, flying at 45° with my rear in the air. I keep my eyes open though, and look at Bianca. Latias is cooing slightly as she eats.

"Your really good with them" Jay says quietly, as if a loud noise would scare us away. "Well, I've known them for as long as I can remember. They've known me since I was a baby". Its true. Bianca's family have lived in and owned the house attached to the garden from since it was built. Occasionally they leave to travel, but the only people who have ever stayed in that house are members of Bianca's family. The house gets passed down from child to child, who lives in it/keeps it empty, but they NEVER sell it "When I was smaller Latios would take me for a fly around the Alto Mare sky." She says, the sad tinges of the bygone memory creeping into her voice. "Can he still do that now?" Jay asks. Wow. He's taking an interest in something that isn't himself for once. "Yeah. He could probably take fat Lorenzo" she says with a cheeky grin. "But I got scared of heights." she says, again looking a bit sad. I'm done eating, so to cheer her up I do the most affectionate gesture I can, rubbing the side of my face against hers and cooing lightly in her ear. "Thanks Latios! Are you still hungry?" she asks. I back off and nod. Latias has just finished too, licking Bianca's palm to pick up every last crumb, before Bianca withdraws her palm, wiping it on the blanket. Jay suddenly pipes up. We both realise we've got our backs to him and return to our bowls, doing the wings-down, paws-out, looking up stance that almost always ends in food.

"Err... Can.. Bianca... Erm... May I feed them?" He asks. I flit my eyes over to Bianca, who looks slightly suprised. "Oh! Okay, sure!" she says. "Try throwing some food first though, its a bit weird having them eat out of your hands, they do nip sometimes". Oh, that's a shame. I was rather hoping to 'nip' off his entire hand. I look back at Jay. "Oh, okay. What can they have?". Again to Bianca. "Anything" is her response. All eyes on Jay. "Do they like fish?".

Do we like fish? Uh, DUH! We love fish. Since we're practically sea-faring, we're especially tuned to like fish. I think the only thing that likes fish more than us is a Skitty. We don't get it often though, you don't find them in the wild anymore. It has to be bread in special centres, otherwise the other pokemon would eat the entire planet dry of them in days. Which is why people only ever see them in these centres. We've been waiting for Bianca or ANYONE round offer us the fish on that plate on the blanket. Finally!

That said, both of us tense ourselves to fly and catch the fish which Jay is going to throw. Jay sees us tense, and Bianca tells him "They love fish. Especially this kind.". She passes him the plate with the pink fish on, and he cuts off two decent-sized slices, which fall away from the body and onto the plate. He sets the plate down and picks up the two slices, one in his left hand, one in his right. He looks at our poised bodies. "Ready?" he asks us. Like he'd understand the response. JUST THROW THE DAMN FISH. "Go!" he says, and releases the fish from his hands, throwing it above and across the blanket with a flick of his wrist.

Instant take-off from the both of us. I'm closer to Jay and so go for the piece that he threw from his left hand, which is also closer. This means Latias can get the other piece easily, If I try and get the other piece, Latias' piece would just hit me. So me getting the closest piece makes sense. This being Latias though, 'making sense' is not a priority. I've flown and just got the fish in my mouth, when she butts into me, clearly having decided to get the closer piece as well. "HEY!" she shouts, but I keep hold of the fish, and land at the other side of the blanket, facing away from everyone. Good, she can't try stealing it from me. I start chewing on the fish. It's a rare kind, I've not come across before. It's not been warmed up either so its still got all of the flavor in it. This really is a tastey fish.

I hear a kerfuffle behind me. After swallowing the chewed up fish, I turn around to see Bianca pulling at Latias, who must have lost track of the other slice after she ran into me. The knock to her snout must have stunned her. She's sniffing around the blanket, floating upside down, looking for the other slice. "It must have landed somewhere here" she keeps saying. Bianca gives up pulling on her and resorts to verbal persuasion. "Latias. The fish landed there" she says angrily, pointing to a pink lump about a meter away from the blanket, on the grass. "Oh... YEAH!" Latias says, making Bianca and Jay both face palm as she takes off and heads directly for the meat, narrowly missing Bianca with her wings.

Latias reaches the fish as I float back around to Jay. He can't NOT throw another piece now. That last piece was SOO GOOD! He notices me waiting and raises a finger. "Wait for Latias," he says. This irks me as its our food anyway, and I could just get some myself, but I keep cool, turning to Latias, who is still chewing it - bobbing her head and cooing happily as she does - determined to get as much flavor from it as possible. I dont blame her. It was nice fish.

Eventually she finishes, turning back around to Jay before jetting over next to me to stare at him. "Look who's popular all of a sudden" Bianca says. I remind myself that the only reason I'm looking at Jay right now is because he's holding my favorite food. He's already prepared two slightly bigger slices, and is holding them in his left and right hand. I'm at his right, so the piece in his right hand is mine. "GO!" Jay shouts, throwing the slices over our heads.

We both do backflips and fly upside down, keeping the fish in the center of our sight. Both me and Latias practically do the same movement, looking really quite synchronized as we both snatch the fish out of the air, spin round and land at the same time, chewing over our food next to each other, backs to the blanket.

Behind me, over the sound of Latias happily chewing her fish, I hear the cheery little 'bling' noise that is Bianca's phone. I continue with my fish. This piece is a bit larger than the last one and I'm having trouble keeping it in my mouth, bu-

"AHHYYYY! OH MY ARCEUS!" Bianca screams.  
Me and Latias both swallow the fish instantly and fly up, looking at Bianca and the reason as to why she's screamed, looking for the cause so we can remove it with as much force as possible. All she's doing is looking at her phone, wearing a smile that's about as big as they get. We wait a few seconds hoping she'll explain. When she doesn't, Jay asks for us. We hover closer. "What's up babe?". She looks up, gives herself a second, then speaks. Me an Latias both turn our ears towards her.

"Okay, I've got a text from Lorenzo. Let me read it out." She composes her self before continuing.

"Bianca. I dont know where you lot went, but I presume your not waiting outside the studio for me. The reason I've not come out yet is because the studio manager wants me to present a new series on myths and legends!" Bianca squeals whilst Jay looks a bit dumb struck. Me and Latias both grin at each other. Bianca waits and then carries on. "I'm going to sign the contract now before they change their mind, so don't wait up for me. I expect I'll also go for a drink with the producer afterwards, so I'll be back early tomorrow. Jay can stay over if he wants, but I want Latios keeping an eye on you. Smiley-Face El-oh-el"

She stops, indicating the end of the message. We're all silent for a second, then yet again Jay sums up the mood. "Wow! Thats wonderful!" and embraces Bianca in a hug. For once its not sickly-romantic, its actually quite a nice moment. Me and Latias give each other a hug. Its not a proper hug, our arms dont reach round each other, only pat each others sides. It's still nice though. We all stay like that for a moment until Bianca breaks apart her hug suddenly, voicing her idea out loud.

"We need to celebrate!"

* * *

The thing Jay says about the Pokephilia, that wasn't in my dream. It was some unknown phrase that made me angry. I'm just pointing this out so you don't think I was a twisted child. *Eye Twitch*

Also, a great idea just bloomed in my head for another story. I'm not going to write it out until I've finished this story though :) . What I will say is, if you like action or military stuff, spy stuff and pokemon, watch this author, cuz you've got a treat coming your way after this one! Definitely ones for fans of CHERUB.

Also, I just got a deviantart account, I'm going to upload some renderings of the scenes I've described. Expect links soon!

Dont for get to read and Review! Yes you. YOU. the button there, says review. CLICK IT. You haven't clicked it yet. Go on. Still not done it. Wow your stubborn. Fine. Don't. Now I'm sad.


	8. Chapter 8: Planning

So, Lorenzo's got a new job about TV presenting myths and legends. Lets hope it doesn't go mythbusters style and end up exploding some fossils.

latiasfan1: Away at camp you say? Was it by any chance SSUK 2012? Or a literature one at UCL? I've been to both at some time or another and they ended when you returned.  
David Davidson: After I saw your comment I made a little 3D model of Latias and animated it, then put it on a stary background to the nyancat music. It entertained my little brother for hours.  
An7: Oh no. There's still a lot that happens, and I'm not planning on abandoning it. These hallucinations went on for about a week. Interesting, though, that I never once hallucinated anyone going to the toilet, considering how much detail everything else was in :/  
To all of you: I don't mind if people post reviews only once anyway, so don't feel compelled to review every chapter.

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**Chapter 8: Planning.**

"YEAH!" Latias shrieks, breaking apart our hug, getting very excited at the prospect of a party. Latias loves parties because all of Bianca's friends come round and tell her what a cute and soft legendery she is. Me, I don't care as much for them (parties or her friends), but they're still nice. I get the odd question asked, and we'll always play interesting games. Once we tried a game called 'twister', a game that involves spinning an arrow and it telling you what body part you put where on a map. It sounded stupid to me, but it was quite funny watching me and Latias play. Until we broke a light fitting...

"Good idea!" Says Jay, with a hint of enthusiasm. "Shall we make it a suprise? Like, he comes back from the museum the day after tomorrow, and we're ALL here, with a buffet, party games, fancy champagne... The works". He seems really keen on the idea. Bianca thinks it through. Jay tries to add another persuasive point. "I'd finally get to meet your parents?" He says. Uh-oh. Wrong thing to say. "Well... I don't think we'll invite my parents" She says, in a tone suggesting that he shouldn't pry further. But, being the moronic idiot he is, he does.

"Why not? I'm sure they won't be THAT embarrassing!" Jay replies. If only he knew. It's not so much embarrassing as an utter disappointment to the family.

"There's a reason my parents dont live here anymore" Bianca says, a touch of resent entering her voice, so me and Latias both fly to hover either side of her, looking like her own personal protection squad. It also provides some context for the what she's about to say. Jay latches on to this, but as always he's as clueless as ever.

"Did Latios and Latias throw them out?". A valid concern, considering I almost literally threw him across the garden an hour ago.

Bianca sighs. "I guess I might as well tell you now, and get it out of the way. But afterwards you've got to promise like I've never told you? Like, immediately. The moment I'm done, I never said anything and we start organising the party. Ok?". Jay looks worried. "I promise, no matter what you say, I'll stand by you and with you." He says in the most sincere voice he can muster, though to me it still sounds like he's ordering pizza over the phone. Bianca looks slightly reassured. "Ok. Here goes". She decides to skip straight to the point, attempting to say it as quickly as possible.

"My parents-". She falters, not quite knowing how to start. She composes herself and tries again, a bit slower "When my dad - Jamie - was 23, she married my mum - Jessica -, who was 22. They had me and got married, but my mum never knew what my dad did for a job. He would always be vague, but she didn't care, she loved him regardless. One day, He." She stops again. The next sentence comes out like she's choking over it. " My dad tried to capture Latios and Latias." Jay looks mildly shocked, but reassures Bianca by grasping her hand and saying "Oh!". Bianca continues. "When we stopped him, he told us all the truth. My dad worked for team rocket, and was acting under their orders the entire time. Lorenzo kicked him out, threatening to call officer Jenny if he ever came near the house or garden again."

"Why are you upset, he did the right thing?" Jay says. However much of an arrogant, self-centred, obnoxious, moronic idiot Jay is, he always finds the right words to cheer Bianca up. He must have cheered her up. Surely. Because she smiles, not beaming exactly, but no longer upset either.

"It was my mum. The next day, She wasn't anywhere to be seen. She had left a note on the kitchen counter. It said that She and my Dad still had a connection, and that if he wasn't allowed near the house anymore, than neither was she. It said that she'd joined team rocket, and it included her new phone number and address if I ever wanted to speak to her."

"But you don't" Jay clarifies.

"I don't." She confirms. Then she adds another bit.

"Anyone who wants to get to Latios or Latias has to go through me first. They are ten times better siblings than my mum and dad ever were parents"

It takes me a while to grasp this myself. Siblings? She loves us both so much we're like family to her. She even said we're a better family than her natural parents. What Bianca said is so nice and so to the point that a tear forms in my eyes. I dont know what to do, and the moment is getting really awkward, me floating there with water collecting in one eye. I hover to face Bianca and give her one of my mini-hugs. Latias has done the same, so I end up resting my paws on top of Latias'. I decide to just say what I'm thinking, even if Bianca doesn't understand it. "Thanks, Bianca".

We stay like that until the moment becomes awkward, which it does quite quickly, thanks to Jay stood glaring at us. Bianca pulls us all apart.

"Anyway, I said no more dwelling on that once I've done, and I've done. So lets cheer up, We've got a party to plan!" And with this she sits down on the edge of the blanket. Jay sits himself down on the edge to the left of her and me and Latias take the two remaining corners, lying down with our backs facing upwards and our wings resting on the ground. Its like when we're waiting for food only minus the bowl and hopeful look.

Suddenly, Latias decides she'd prefer to be in her Bianca form, casting a blinding blue glow. We all shield our eyes. All but one of us remains unsuprised. Guess who isn't? "Iss... She... Ok?" Jay stutters, leaning away from the light. He'll understand soon enough. When she's done, the glow fades and Latias is revealed looking exactly like Bianca, lying down on the ground with her arms propped up in a triangle supporting her head. Jay stops leaning back. "Oh. Well that explains a lot" Jay says, sounding a bit like he's annoyed that we hadn't told him she could do that. The faux Bianca arranges herself so she's sitting cross-legged, exactly the same as the real Bianca. Then he freezes.

"Wait. Wait... How do I know which one is the one I kiss?" He asks, all the time looking left at Latias, then right to the real Bianca. The Real Bianca answers this while I glower at him for even suggesting a romantic interest in my sister. Though I think it looses its effect when I'm laid on the floor looking up at him. "I'm Bianca, and I wear a beret, whereas Latias" She points to Latias and Jay follows her finger. "doesn't."

"Oh. Easy enough." he says, though he still looks perplexed. Latias leans across Jay and picks up the laptop, making him lean back drastically in an attempt to avoid Latias from touching him. This annoys me, he doesn't need to avoid her like she's got the plague. If anything she should be avoiding him.

Bianca brings us back to the task at hand.

"So, first, we need to figure out where we're going to hold this party. In the garden or the house?"

"How about here? Just here, where we are now?" Jay says to Bianca, though he's still looking sideways at Latias. I can't tell weather its a look of contempt or something else. Either way, Latias doesn't know, because she's looking intently into the laptop screen. "I suppose here is OK. Its in an open space, so those two wont have to worry about knocking stuff over. There's plenty of room for guests, and we can always have some tables for the food. We can even have a banner hanging from those trees." Bianca says, casting a place to the trees to her left, oblivious to Jay's focus on Latias, My focus on Jay and Latias focusing on the laptop, no one listening to her at all.

"Okay. Lets have it here then!" Jay says, finally turning away from Latias. "Ok. What food are we going to have then?" Bianca continues. While Jay is mulling it over, Latias (Or rather, the laptop she's controlling) speaks. "CAKE". Jay does a double take, glancing at Latias, then the laptop, then Bianca, then back to Latias, then Bianca. "Wait, did she just speak? She sounded like a dude... Did she just speak?" he says. He looks really confused. I'm still lied down opposite him, so I can see the immensity of his facial expression. Its so confused, it's priceless. Latias explains this one, hammering out a message as the laptop says it. "I DIDN'T SAY IT. I TYPED IT INTO THE LAPTOP AND IT SAID IT." Jay doesn't look any less confused.

"Soooo... They can understand English?" He asks.

Now, we've been responding to statements like 'Do you like fish?', 'I'm sorry, please don't throw me across the garden' and 'Are you hungry?' around him for about 3 hours today, plus a few times before. So you'd think he'd realise that we can understand English. But no. He's so busy concentrating on himself to realise.

I nod my head furiously, Latias just types in "YES". Jay just puts his hands on either size of his head, looking like he's trying to crush his own skull. "But. But. But. I." He murmurs. Its really quite funny from my point of view. Jay, some who is normally so sure of himself, is just jabbering away. Bianca is just staring open mouthed in an expression that I think they call bemusement. "So. So. But. All pokemon? They. Can." He continues.

Eventually Bianca decides to interrupt. "I don't see why your so suprised. They HAVE been answering the questions we've asked them in English" she smiles, gently grasping his hand. He stops babbling. I don't know why its such a big deal for him. "I know. I just thought they figured out what we were saying by what we were doing" He finally says.

Latias is doing her human impersonation of laughing. She's got her hand over her open mouth, head slightly higher than normal, moving her shoulders up and down. She doesn't make any noise, but the intention is clear - 'I find this situation funny'. It looks like a pretty good impersonation, and this is verified when Jay looks at her for a second, then goes "What? Is she laughing?" irritatedly. To which Latias responds by nodding her head. "But you still can't talk?" He asks. She shakes her head, keeping the smile on her face. "Riiiiiight..." he says, still looking unsure of himself. Good. Not only is he not being arrogant, perhaps now he'll think twice before calling us dumb. He shakes his head rapidly, like a damp poochyana, only he's trying to rid himself of confusing thoughts instead of water.

"Can we get back to planning this party?" He asks, sounding a little desperate. "Great!" says Bianca with a huff. "We're finally all on the same page! So, Latias, You want cake?" Latias responds with a nod. Bianca pauses, expecting more, but there isn't. "Okay. They'll want a sponge cake. Why don't we make it special, like cutting the cake at a wedding? A themed cake.".Pauses all round while we all digest this. I understand what she means, I think. She wants the cake to be like a special 'thing', with Lorenzo slicing it and handing out pieces to symbolize... something. I know its a tradition when someone is entering a new phase in their life. But what does she mean by themed?

Bianca senses our hesitation. "So, he's got a job as a presenter. So perhaps a little studio made of icing on the top? Or a microphone?" Everyone understands now, but Latias puts the proverbial and literal icing on the cake for this idea. "TONY!" The laptop spits out. A pause "ICE CREAM MAN TONY. HE DOES CAKES TOO RIGHT?". She's right. When we visit Tony's ice cream parlour, he has all sorts of cakes on display in a glass box next to the ice cream fridge. I think there's also a sign that says "We ice cakes for occasions!". I guess this is a occasion. So we can get him to make and ice the cake for us!

Bianca realizes what she means at the same time as me. "Great idea Latias! Doesn't tony do cake icing as well? I think so. So we'll get a cake from there then!" she says. After that, Latias pushes the laptop off her knee and stands up. Bianca looks at her. "Where you going?" Bianca asks. Latias stands still, adding her 'puzzled' look to her face - eyebrow raised, head lopsided, mouth at an angle. She thinks we're getting the cake now. "No Latias, not now" Bianca replies. "It's past 5 o'clock. Tonies will be closed." Bianca says, putting on her 'your a silly girl' voice. Latias looks disappointed while sitting back down. Not only has she made her face look disappointed, she's moving her body in ways that Bianca does when she's let down. Heavy shoulder movements, loose arms and keeping her head looking down a bit.

"Tomorrow, you and Latios can go and order a cake." She resumes, looking at me and Latias. Latias likes going to Tonies and smiles at the prospect. "Meanwhile, me and Jay will be setting up out here. We can do that tomorrow and Lorenzo won't see it before the celebration because he never comes this far into the garden without a reason, plus he'll be so tired from staying up tonight that he's not going to want to go for a walk around here anyway." Nods from all of us. "Okay? No problems with that" Everyone shakes their heads. "Right. Next thing, food." I prick my ears up. If there's one thing I want to hear about, its food. Eating it would be even better. Bianca sees this. "Latios, I guess you'll want the same food as us? On a plate, not a bowl?" I nod. If I've got a plate people won't be able to pet me while I can't see them because my heads in a bowl. Plus it makes me look a lot more sophisticated.

"Okay. What types of food do we all want?" Me and Latias both point to the fish, I float up a little bit though because my arms aren't big enough. While I'm floating and pointing at the fish, I turn my head to Bianca who rolls her eyes. "Ok, so you two will be wanting fish. We can get some from the guy in the market, its a good job that's tomorrow. Anything else?". I settle back to my original place, I don't really want any other food in particular. "Party sausages" Jay says. He hadn't spoken in a while. "Right. Latias? can you type all this down?" "SURE" the machine says, void of all emotion. Latias clicks a few buttons, taps a few keys, then looks up again, clearly having finished the task. "Copy down all the other food we say as well" Bianca says, which receives a nod from the fake Bianca.

"Mini party sausages. Salad, and salady stuff, because a few of my friends are vegetarian. So that's coleslaw, salad dressing, tomatoes, cucumber..." Latias starts tapping away. Jay clicks his fingers and announces his idea, a little arrogance returning to his voice and movements. "Potato salad". Bianca repeats him by way of confirmation. "Potato salad. Actually, we could have more fish if we make tuna pasta as well." The only thing better than fish in my opinion is more fish, so this is a great idea. I smile a bit more to show my support. Bianca sees me smiling and continues. "Always thinking of you two. People will want to make sandwiches, so we'll need more bread and butter. Lets get some jam too, several ones with different flavors. More cheese. Anything else?". I dont have any other ideas, and Latias is shaking her head too. Jay looks like he's thinking, so its only a matter of time before we see steam come out of his ears. Before we reach that point though, he gives up, shaking his head.

"While we're shopping we'll also get whatever we fancy too. Ok." she takes a breath, thinking. "So. When you two get back from ordering the cake tomorrow, We'll leave you with some stuff to do around here while me and Jay go shop for party food."

"Finally, who are we inviting?" Bianca thinks outloud. "Obviously, you're coming Jay. I'll invite a few of my art school friends too. Do you want to bring anyone Jay?". Jay looks a bit taken aback by Bianca's offer. "Oh, Erm... Thanks. But I don't want to bring anyone else". Bianca looks disappointed. "Are you sure you don't want to bring anyone?"

"Nah babe. I don't need anyone else so long as I've got you." Jay says, switching back to his 'I'm Jay and I'm better than everyone else voice'. I may need to threaten him again - perhaps with an uppercut - because he's starting to wind me up with the romance angle.

Both Bianca and Latias - though I dont know why - blush. "Okay then. If you're sure..." real Bianca says. Silence for a second. Then, Latias starts typing, the clicky tapping noises preceding the mechanical voice. "BIANCA. CAN WE INVITE ICE CREAM MAN TONY. HE'S ONE OF LORENZO'S FRIENDS?" Bianca mulls this over. Lorenzo and Tony get along well, plus Lorenzo won't exactly fit in with the youth crowd that is Bianca's friends. Its not a bad idea. "That's a good idea Latias. You two can invite him when you order the cake!". Latias likes Tony, so she's explainably quite happy.

"Well, if that's it there's still time left for one thing to do today. What should we do?" Bianca leads on. "Didn't you say we needed a banner?" Jay asks. "To hang somewhere over there?" he waves over to the trees behind him. "Are you saying we make that now? I suppose its a good idea. Latios? Latias? Do you want to make the banner for Lorenzo?"

Baring in mind I'm not very good at precision movements - as demonstrated by the fiasco in the kitchen this morning - I dont think its a good idea if I try painting a banner or going anywhere near a pencil or paintbrush. Then again, I'll try anything once and Latias clearly wants to do it. I can always lift something heavy if I'm not that good.

Me and Latias both nod our heads.

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Kind of a filler chapter, as you can probably tell I'm not great with dialogue.

So, that explains where Bianca's parents are. I was about to call social services! And yet another internets goes to the reviewer who figures out who her patents are/end up being in the anime. *Waves an internet like its a fish*

Also, don't forget, if you've not reviewed yet, I want you to click that little button marked "Review" and type out a few words that say what you think of the story and my terrible English so far. Go on. Don't be shy. Its there. Looks like a speech bubble.


	9. Chapter 9: Banner

Back again!  
Reviewers, and _wow_ aren't the views going up!  
_An7_ - Yeah, Jessie is the leading one, but you know what they say about femme fatale? They always get promoted first (No Comment, Winky Face). That isn't to say your correct, though your close... All will be explained soon, though I took the liberty of checking bulbapedia in case I'd missed an episode that cleared up their back story. I had missed one, but it still matches the explanation my story provides. Your close, but not QUITE there. Hold tight!  
_David Davidson_ - Based on personal experience, when a guy surrounded by girls says something romantic that's aimed at only one, most of them blush. Don't ask my why beyond that, it's just something I've observed. Perhaps she's flattered that Jay fancies her identical human form? Pokémon are still animals, and therefore still have the same neural response pathways linked to hormone production. So its feasibility possible for her to respond to the romantic situation by producing hormones like adrenaline which in humans cause blushing as well as the fight-or-flight response.  
_nethown_ - Thanks! I'll try to tone down the spelling mistakes a bit more (their there and they're)

Sorry about the longer wait! Stuff I'm getting paid for has to take priority though!

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**Chapter 9: Banner**

"Latios?" Bianca asks. "Can you come with me and fetch the stuff for the banner, then? It's too heavy for me to lift on my own.". Huh. Yes. I float up vertical and fold my arms in by way of acceptance. "Thanks" and she gets up and heads back towards the house. This means, on the other hand, that I have to leave Latias alone with Jay. Not a good thing for either of them. I resolve to beat Jay into next January if Latias is so much as slightly upset when I get back. While the image of me throwing him that far is satisfying, I still don't want to leave her with him, but Bianca is getting further away.

I rotate round and hover after her. No point in rushing this time though, she walks quick enough and sometimes talks to me about interesting stuff. Her voice is so nice. I catch up and hover beside her. She keeps walking but turns her head towards me and smiles, noticing the slight breeze as I slowed down to her speed. "So, Latios." Ahh. This is great. Some time to ourselves, No Jay or Latias or Lorenzo to but-in with remedial quotes or questions. "Looking forward to this party?" she says as she turns her head back to face the way she's going. "Oh, Yeah!" I say, which she's gotten to understand. She's done quite well understanding bits of our language, when I think about it. She can tell if were being positive, negative or even asking a question, though she doesn't know the nature of the question without context. Still not bad considering she can't hear half the tones we use.

"So your going to like it? Good. Perhaps this time you'll let one of my friends give you a stroke?". Well, I HAVE been a bit mardy in the past about people touching my pelt. "Not like last time". Oh, great. Here we go again. "Do you know how awkward it was to explain that luster purge burn to Tracy's mum? It wasn't exactly a hospital case, but you scared her to death and she wouldn't go near the garden for ages afterwards, remember?"

She does have a point. I was a tad too violent to the poor girl. Though I did growl for ages before actually attacking her, and it was an aptly names attack - luster, lust, inappropriate contact, all the same thing. She was just to stupid to stop. And stupid people deserve what they get. But if it'll make Bianca happy, I guess there's no harm in it. And after all, all they want to do is feel how soft I am. "Okay" I say, but because my tone is a bit unsure I nod my head slowly so Bianca understands that - while I'm saying yes - it doesn't mean 'Invite everyone to pet me' by any means.

"Thanks" she says, then goes silent. She never says 'Thank you' to me or Latias. Always 'Thanks'. Perhaps it sounds to formal... We're just entering the long archway the marks the exit from the secret garden and entry to the house's garden when Bianca starts talking again.

"I meant what I said, you know?". This catches me off guard. I understand that she meant 'Thank you' when she said 'thanks', so why bother clarifying?

Bianca realizes her sentence was a bit too vague. "About how your always like a brother to me. You've always been there for me, you never let me get hurt and you don't ask for much in return." Oh. This again. I guess she just wanted to say it while we were in private, so it sounded better. But it's clear she's not going to stop saying it until she knows I understand fully. So I fly up in front of her, to a height where my arms can reach her shoulders, and softly rest each paw on top of them. It looks like a pretty good copy of what Lorenzo does when he's speaking seriously to her, and she understands this as she looks dead into my eyes the same way she does Lorenzo. I look her in the eyes and set up a telepathic link.

"Listen, Bianca. I understand where your coming from exactly because I feel the same about you." Puzzlement crosses her face. "Your like a sister to me. Like Latias, only human and a lot less annoying." she smiles, almost giggling. I continue relaying my words to her head. "You've looked after me for all these years. You helped when your dad tried to catch me. You've learned a bit of how I speak even though it's not your language. You've even shaped your hair like our wings. You know just what I'm thinking and I wouldn't want any other human as a sister."

This does the trick, she's smiling wildly at me. But wait, she's also crying. "Come here" she says with her voice, through her tears. Is she going to hit me? I didn't do anything wrong, but she must think it because she's crying. Oh Arceus this is confusing. I lean my neck down so she can reach, letting go of her shoulders in the process. The moment I'm in range, she raises both of her arms and flings them around my neck. Oh, it's a hug. I rest my arms on her back, the best I can do to return it. "Thank you Latios. That really means a lot to me." She says, maintaining the hug, which is getting quite painful for me as my neck's pretty much at a right angle.

Bianca breaks the hug apart after too long, allowing me round float to the side and her to continue walking. We reach the house without saying a word. As we reach the door, though, she teases me about it. "How many times are you going to struggle with the door before going through it this time?" she asks, a friendly sneer on her face. ^Haha, funny^. I fly around to the open study window and go through that. Showed her. We don't lock the back windows because the back of the house is only accessible from the garden, there's no way around the side of the house or anything. Hence how useful it is to the secrecy of the garden as to get to it would mean going through the house.

I fly through to the hallway, while Bianca opens the back door and comes through the kitchen. I'm waiting for her in the ample sized hallway with what I tell myself is a grin. Bianca doesn't notice it though, or at least doesn't comment on it though, so it may need some work. She turns to her left and opens a cupboard under the stairs. This is where she keeps all the arty stuff, including the 2 big rolls of canvas and paper. They're resting horizontal on poles inside the cupboard, so she can just pull on the end of them and get a length of them. She grabs the end of the paper roll and pulls. "We'll use paper for the banner, we can paint on it and it's not expensive like the canvas." She explains to me, walking backwards and rolling out the paper at the same time. "How big?" she's asking me. Well, its got to stretch between two trees, and they're about the length of the house apart. A bit less. Either way, Bianca should really keep walking backwards until her back touches the radio cabinet in the living room, which is directly opposite the art cupboard.

I raise my hand and point behind her. "Keep going?" she asks, and I nod my head. She walks backwards, looking behind herself the entire time as she steers herself into the living room and carries on until she's in the middle of it. "About here?" She asks, tilting her head as she does. I recon she doesn't want to use all the paper on the roll and it should be long enough. Now I'm actually looking at the very white expanse of paper that we've drawn out, it does look a bit big. Actually, I think this is enough. I nod my head to Bianca. "Right then, could you cut it for me?" The doorway between the living room and hallway is blocked by the paper and she doesn't want to tread on it. I fly over to the roll of paper. My arms are 'just' to small to reach across the width of the paper, so I fly horizontal so I'm above the it. But I've got nowhere to fold my wings as the ceiling is above and below is the paper being held taught in mid-air by Bianca. I end up half a meter away from the cupboard, meaning some paper will have to be rolled back. I hover a single claw on my left paw at the edge of the paper and look at Bianca. "Here?". It's enough for Bianca. "Yep, cut it there."

In one swift movement, I draw my incredibly sharp claw downwards and fly backwards, cutting the paper in an almost straight line. Both ends of the paper fall downwards, Bianca's end hitting the floor but the other end drifting down from the roll. Job done, I hover down from the ceiling and rotate so I'm vertical. Bianca is still holding the end of the paper in both hands. She starts walking towards me, rolling the paper in her hands as she goes. Eventually she reaches the end, where she twists it a bit more and makes it smaller in the process. Hands full, she's unable to do the next task to store the roll. "Pass us a tube?" she asks, referring to the cardboard tubes she uses to keep the materials rolled up when no one's holding them. I've seen her fetch them before so I know that their on a little shelf to the left on the inside of the cupboard, above the paper. There are quite a lot of different sized ones, so I choose one that looks about right. Now to try to pick it up. The shielding on my arms is too big to fit in the small space, so I have to psychic the tube from the space and out of the cupboard, where Bianca is waiting with the roll. I levitate the tube over the top of the roll of paper Bianca is holding out then slide it on. She's looking at the intent look of my face. "It's still really weird when you do that..." Bianca comments, keeping the roll still. I stop using psychic and Bianca releases her grip on the paper, which starts to unroll but is stopped by the tube. Bianca grabs the roll by the recently added tube. "Excellent!" she says.

I hover away from the cupboard so Bianca can get the other stuff. She sets the roll down on the floor, not having to worry about me treading on it on account of the fact I float. She leans into the cupboard and brings out a worn leather-strapped bag with a single zip-up compartment and several little side pockets that also zip up. She starts taking stuff out of the cupboard and placing it in the bag. She drags out a big metal can from the bottom shelf. "Well, most of the stuff is going to be writing, which we'll do in black." She says through gritted teeth, the can is clearly quite heavy. Eventually it lands with a THUD inside the bag. "We'll want some red, blue, green and orange as well, but not as much so I'll get the smaller pots" she says to herself as she leans into the cupboard yet again and pulls out some much smaller cans, putting those in the bag as well. "Brushes. Which ones will fit in your claws" she says, pulling out a rolled up piece of cloth with loads of brushes in individual pockets. The handles have all sorts of sizes and Bianca brings it to my arm-level, grabbing my claws in her other hand and flattening them out so she can see which width handle would be best. After a brief consideration, I point to a slightly large one. "I think your right there too" she agrees. She swipes the brush out of its pocket, selects two others and folds the bit of cloth away before dropping them into one of the bag's side pockets.

She gets a few other things and puts them in the bag, including 4 wooden plates, before zipping the bag up and closing the cupboard. "Okay then! We've got everything, pick up the bag and let's go!" and with that she jogs through the kitchen door. I float there, because I know what's going to happen next. Sure enough, she jogs back in. "Forgot the paper" she mumbles, and I do a mini laugh. I float down to pick up the leather bag as Bianca picks up the roll of paper. The bag has wide straps so my arms pass easily through them, and because its leather it'd be difficult to accidentally cut with my claws. I shift so the bag's strap is resting in the crook of my arm. I float up, feeling the weight of the bag unevenly spread through my body. I have to put more psychic effort on one side of me than the other, and vary it as the bag swings. Yeah the bag is heavy, but its by no means un-carry-able. It's just really awkward how it's all on one side and swaying as I move.

I make my way back through the study and window, floating to the outside where Bianca is already heading off. The bag is still swinging and affecting how I can fly quite a lot. I fly after Bianca and make a little whining noise. She stops and turns around. "What is it?" she asks, unaware of my discomfort. I point to the bag with my free paw. "Is it too heavy?" I shake my head. "Well then what?". This is going to be a difficult message to convey... Bianca wears the bag on her back, so I should try doing that. Now how to ask her? I fly horizontal and let go of the bag, psychicing it onto my back. The straps wont be able to fit around my wings though. They are wide enough, but I wouldn't be able to fit them around because they don't reach the length of my wing.

"You want to wear it like I do?". Close enough, though I don't know how as I don't have shoulders for the loops to go around. I nod though, she wouldn't offer it unless she knew how. She steps forwards, and I float downwards, allowing her to reach the bag. She moves the bag so it back is to mine and the straps are dangling down my sides. Next, she presses something on each strap and it separates itself from itself, though I can't see properly as my neck won't bend all the way round. What I can tell is that the 'loops' that goes round a humans shoulders are separated so their no longer loops, just 4 straps hanging from the bag. "Just lift your wings up a bit" she asks and I comply. She moves the 2 straps on the left around my left-wing and pushes them back together, where they click and turn back into a loop. She repeats this with the other side. "How's that?" she asks.

Well, it's certainly swaying a lot less. And as long as I keep my wings drawn down, it wont slide off them. "Its good, thanks!" I say, which is said with enough emotion for Bianca to understand."Glad you like it" she says. "Perhaps Lorenzo will make you a special bag for your birthday".

That's our running joke. Mine and Latias' birthday. We don't know when we were born, or even how old we are exactly. So Bianca keeps teasing us about birthday presents. "Haha, good one" I say, which sounds like nothing but a medium length moderately high coo to Bianca. But at least she knows I'm not taking it personally.

We've reached the other end of the archway through to the garden, and Bianca hasn't said anything else. I remember Latias has been left with Jay for 10 minutes, which equates to approximately three and a half years in hell itself. I decide its best to race off to them in order to make sure that Jay isn't upsetting her and Latias isn't harming Jay... Too much. I accelerate rapidly, the weight on my back almost forgotten it's so comfortable.

I reach the clearing in no time, but slow down before hand. It might be interesting to see or hear what's happening. I fly low, just behind a bush. I can't see much but I can hear quite well with my ears once I angle them better. Jay is talking to Latias, I catch the end of his conversation. "ly like Bianca." He says, the end sounds like a question was asked. The laptop responds. "YES. WE SPENT A LOT OF TIME LOOKING AT EACH OTHER.". Jay carries on. "So, did she shape her hair to look like your wings or did you make that look yourself and she copied it?". I don't believe this. He spends his entire time setting up this MASCULINE MANLY MAN vibe abound him and he's talking to Latias about styling hair.

They carry on, oblivious to my intrusion. "SHE COPIED MY WINGS FIRST WHEN SHE WAS SMALL". "Oh, okay. So, wait..." Jay sounds unsure of this next bit. "Do you... Can you copy her wearing any clothes? What I mean is, are the clothes you're wearing actually clothes, or are they an illusion you set up? As in, are you still... you know... 'naked' and the clothes are just and illusion?".

OKAY. HERE I DRAW THE LINE. I was fine with the being boisterous. I was not happy with him calling us dumb. But If I'm understanding him correctly, he's just asked my sister if she's naked. Admittedly with some awkwardness, but all the same, she's too young for that kind of question. Especially for someone who claims to dislike Pokephilia.

I fly over the hedge and right up to his face, so quick I'm there before his brain registers the fact. When it catches up he finches but stands his ground, which is even more irritating as most of the stuff I do that too either disintegrates or has a heart attack. Latias has transformed and is speaking to me - in Lati - but I'm to busy yelling at Jay to listen "KEEP YOUR GUILTY THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS AWAY FROM MY LITTLE SISTER!" I'm shouting directly in his face. Whereas the human version of shouting is being louder, most Pokemon shift their voice so its deeper to get a point across. And right now the majority of my voice is too deep for his puny ears to even pick up, never mind his tiny brain to understand. He looks a bit worried, but not unduly concerned. I bar my teeth, showing two rows of diamond hard and razor-sharp teeth. A little bit more worried. I'm staring directly at him, the end of my snout no more than two centimeters from his nose. I start to pay attention to Latias.

"Please! Leave him alone! He was just being curious! I'm sure you were confused by the concept of clothes!" She's squealing, her voice higher than normal. I churn this over in my brain, all the while staring down an increasingly concerned Jay. She's right. When I first woke up I was curious as to why humans chose to wear clothes. Being - effectively - a wild Pokemon, we're quite used to not wearing clothes. We still don't, but the somehow the 'humans not wearing clothes = embarrassing' thought is lodged in my head, and I refuse to have my sister embarrass herself in front of Jay. All the time I'm thinking this though, Latias is reading my mind. Literally.

"Woah!" she says to me. "He never said anything like that! He just wanted to know if the clothes I'm wearing are real. It was just the way he phrased it." She starts tugging on my wing with her claws. Well, if Latias is on his side, I'm never going to win this argument... They've got arrogance in Jay and persistence in Latias. I growl at Jay one last time before turning away and floating to the edge of the blanket opposite him, where I turn and wait for Bianca's arrival. "We'll talk about this later" I say to Latias, who gives me the Lati equivalent of "Whatever" before transforming back into Bianca and settling back down with the laptop.

"Anyone care to tell me what that was about?" Jay asks the thin air. I don't even rotate my ears to him. Latias, however, does give a response on the laptop. "NEVER MIND. LATIOS WAS JUST BEING AN OVERPROTECTIVE BROTHER. JUST A MISUNDERSTANDING".

Bianca rounds the corner of the bush I was hid behind, waving the roll of paper. "You better not have shaken those cans up too much!" she shouts to me. The bag is still on my back, I've got no way of removing it, and I can see Latias looking at it curiously out of the corner of my eye. Bianca is going to have to take it off, so I wait for her to reach the blanket, which isn't an extended amount of time. When she gets close, I fly over to her horizontal so the bag is at her eye level. "I'll take the bag off, then, shall I?". "Yep!" I yip, lowering myself slightly so she can reach the bag. "Latios, I can't reach the straps while your wing's in the way.". Oops. I raise my wings more, and Bianca reaches under them and presses the things on the straps, and they separate. "Okay, you can take it off now." She says, patting me on the head as she does, and she walks past me and into a clear space beyond the blanket, roll of paper in hand. "Come on you three!" she shouts. Latias and Jay both get up and walk over to where Bianca is and start unrolling the paper on the ground.

I tilt myself sideways, rolling the bag off my back and catching it with the large shielding on my arm. I fly carefully over to the others, dropping the bag when I'm next to them. Jay and Latias are both stood in front of Bianca, who is briefing them on what we're going to do. "So I think it should say 'Congratulations Lorenzo!' in the centre in large black letters and some pictures either side. Since me and Latias are the best at drawing, we'll do the pictures and Latios and Jay can do the words. Okay?" We all nod our heads, though I'm not exactly relishing working with Jay. "Jay, just pass me the bag please?" Bianca says, "I'll set up the paints while you guys unroll the paper." Jay leans to pick the bag up by it straps and grunts as he tries to pick it up. After the third attempt he finally manages to raise it off the ground enough to move it over to Bianca's feet. Weakling, I carried that from the house.

Me, human Latias and Jay go over to the roll of paper on the ground. Me and Latias stop about a foot away to consider the best way to do this, . Jay saunters ahead and grabs the paper around the middle, squeezing it enough to make the roll shrink and the holder fall off. Idiot. "and then we just, roll it out!" he says as if we're the stupid ones for hesitating. He also releases the main bit of the roll whilst holding the loose end. The roll falls at his feet and rolls directly into a tree, the trail of paper leading back to his hands. Latias does an imitation giggle, then walks over, picks up the roll and angles it away from the tree. She also walks towards Jay, making him walk backwards with the end of the roll. After that, she lowers the roll onto the ground and rolls it along with the edge of her foot until it reaches the end. She picks up a rock and places it the paper, holding it down and stopping it from rolling back up. Jay tries to copy this, but he's nowhere near anything to put on it, so he looks around for a bit before giving up, removing his shoe and placing that on the roll instead.

Bianca has finished whatever it is she was doing and brings over the three wooden plates with a bit of paint on them. She asks Jay to fetch the big can of black paint from the bag, which he does. "Me and Latias will do the picture on the left first" she orders, handing the 4 plates to Latias who pinches them between her fingers, managing to carry two of them in one hand. "You and Latios paint the words on the banner with the can you just got. Here are your brushes" - she hands Jay two brushes - " now get cracking!". She walks over to Latias, who is already on the very left, kneeling down and sorting the wooden plates. Jay looks at me and smiles an honest-to-Arceus smile. Even after I've growled in his face and almost killed him. If he'd been in the wild, he'd be dead ten times over. "Come on then!" and he waves a brush from his extended arm as he runs to where he thinks we should start the first, the big can of paint in the other hand. I roll my eyes and go after him.

He's put the can of paint down when I get there but is stuck trying to open it. Since its kind of amusing watching him and he'd brush me off (see what I did there? Brush? eh? because we're painting?) anyway, I float horizontal and watch, folding my arms in so they're more comfortable.

First he tries using his fingers, but he's pulling at the wrong bit. So he tries pulling harder, which also fails. Then he tries the end of the paintbrush handle. Then the aglet of his shoelace. All fail. After trying a few more things composing of what was in his pockets, he finally turns to me, though I hadn't been paying attention anymore. I was watching the girls paint. It's odd how Bianca bites her tounge. Latias doesn't, but it seems to serve some purpose in her concentrating. "Latios can you open this can?" he had asked. I unfold my left arm and use the middle claw to remove the lid in one movement, which pops off and flips onto the grass, landing bottom up with a metallic 'Ting!'. "Well of course its easy for you. You've got thinner fingers" he mutters, searching for a reason why he isn't inferior. One, it's claws, not fingers. Two, they are the same width, The length is just smaller and they taper more. And three, he can't open it because he's an idiot and wasn't doing the right thing to open it.

He tries to pass me my brush, but he gives it to me with the brush part facing towards me, so I've nothing to grip. I do a little spiny motion with my claw in the air, but it doesn't get through to his dense brain. I just end up snatching the brush from him, moving his arm with my shielding while I take the brush from his fingers without actually touching them. He scowled at me. "No need to snatch!" he sneers. Oh how I would love deeply to remove that sneer from his face by way of extreme violence, but Bianca is here and she could get upset. All the blood would ruin the banner too.

I hover above the banner at the start, plotting how its going to go. A big 'C' for 'Congratulations'. My paintbrush is grasped in my claws quite firmly and If I extend my arm out I can touch the paper with my brush, though I've yet to put paint on it. Jay, however, doesn't seem to want to take much care over the proceedings, and plops his paintbrush into the can, before lifting it out again and drawing a thin wobbly 'c' on the paper. It's also got some black splodges because he forgot to tap the brush on the inside of the can to get rid of all the paint that could drip off. He looks at his work. It isn't great. I point to a big black splodge. "Really?". He shrugs. "We can go over it with white paint later". He then moves a bit to the right a bit and starts on the 'O', even though the 'C' is way to thin: its one brush stroke wide. I'll fix that, otherwise Bianca will blame me when it looks bad.

I dip my brush into the can and swirl it around, before raising it and tapping it on the edge of the can. This is isn't too difficult despite the fact I'm grasping the brush in all my claws, like a baby human with a crayon. I fly back over to the badly done 'C' before carefully applying the paint to form a bigger outline that encompass' Jay's one line. As my arms don't reach that far, I have to move myself through the air, unlike Jay who just has to move his long arms. I've finished the outline and it looks... Okay. The curve of the C on the inside is deeper than on the outside, so its thinner in the middle than it is at the top or bottom, but I can fix that by just cutting the corner when I fill it in.

Jay has finished the 'O' and is now on the 'N'. While he's still doing only one line letters, the amount of drips on the paper has lessened after he saw me tapping the brush on the can. I decide to move on to the next letter.

We're at 'T' when Jay starts talking. To me. "Latios?". I look up from the 'T' over at him and he continues. "What do you, like, THINK about?". Other than killing you, not a great deal. I tilt me head to indicate that I'm confused, which I am. Why ask such a question? "Well, like, I've got lots of stuff to think about. Family, the race, Bianca, that kind of thing. But you don't have any family other than your sister" - well spotted, genius - "You can't have that many friends and there isn't much for 2 meter long dragons to do here.". He's right, there isn't much to do, and I can't have many friends. Although I technically count Bianca and Lorenzo as family. He's been looking down ever since he saw me tilt my head, speaking into the paper. "Dont you ever, you know, think of a girlfriend? Or of having a girlfriend?". His question makes my thoughts actually stall. He's right, I don't, mainly because Pokemon relationships are complicated. But mostly because relationships serve no purpose to legendaries that can potentially live forever. Jay looks up quizzically and I shake my head. He raises an eyebrow and I get back to drawing around the 'T', extremely confused about Jay. Is he perhaps more considerate than I thought? So far he's managed to not mention himself or boast about himself and he's actually asked some quite deep questions. Then he has a go at humour and the effect is ruined. "But Bianca's mine. Keep off her." he says, a completely deadpan voice.

I don't like the way he said 'mine', like she is just a possession of his or a currency. If he objectifies her like that it must mean that that's how he views her, and possession is a fragile thing. You can take it or give it or leave it with little to no thought. If he did leave Bianca, she would be distraught. Admittedly I'd be quite pleased and she'd get over it, but she'd be upset nonetheless, which I will not tolerate. Until she realizes what a pathetic excuse he is for a mate, he's stuck with her. I won't allow anything different.

We do two more letters in silence. Then he speaks again. "y'know Latios. I dint know my father either". Oh. ^I'm tearing up^. His family issues don't really relate to mine or Bianca's. I didn't know my father OR my mother, other than the fact that one of them died in a desperate situation. Bianca had it worse because she knew both of her parents and they both betrayed her. Most Pokémon that are eggs don't know their mothers or fathers. Admittedly, the lack of a father and therefore male role model for Jay could explain why he fails to be a good example of a male of the species. But then again, I managed to become a perfectly good Latios even though I've never seen another and am the only one in existence. AND I had to play big-brother for Latias. So I'm not exactly emotionally torn by his situation.

I remain silent.

Eventually, We finish doing the outlines. I float the paint can back to the start and start filling in the outlines. I notice an absence of Jay's help until he realizes that the letters need to be solid color and joins in. I've been watching Bianca and Latias, who'd finished the first picture when I'd filled in the 'N' and had moved onto the picture on the right. I hope we left enough room.

Me and Jay finish the letters in silence. Its the kind of silence that makes you think the other person is thinking about something, though as there wasn't any steam coming out of Jay's ears so I doubt that this is the case. The girls are almost done on the last picture, but I want to see what the first one was like. I fly directly over it and look down. It looks pretty good. I can't tell which bit Latias did and which bit Bianca did, so Latias' skills must have gotten better. Its a painting of Lorenzo in front of one of the cameras like we saw in the studio. It looks very good, and the color fades out along the edges so it goes well with the banner. While I've been admiring it Jay has walked over. I wish he'd stop following me. "She's very talented" he murmurs, not referring to which 'she' he's on about, though since he only thinks of things about him I recon he's talking about his girlfriend. I stare at the image a hit more, wondering how they managed to get the rosy pink color of Lorenzo's face when the only colors put out were red, blue, green and orange. Eventually, I give up wondering and fly over to the picnic to wait for the girls to finish.

Jay walks over to them as I lie down on the grass. Now, Bianca has taken her beret off so she can lean over without it falling onto the painting. This means that Jay wont know which one is Bianca unless he asks them or noticed how Latias doesn't bite her tounge. He stands looking over the two of them, between them and looking down at their work. Then, he raises his right hand and puts it on the shoulder if the Bianca to his right. Said Bianca turns and looks up at him, quite surprised. She raises her hand and points to the other Bianca with one finger. Whereupon he removes his hand from my sisters shoulder, apologizing "Oh, Erm... Sorry." and making the real Bianca look up at him. "You done?" she asks, and he nods. "Yep, what about you?". Even though they're a distance away, my sensitive ears pick up both their voices fine.

"Almost, what do you think?" "I think it's like you..."  
"Its meant to be a microphone."  
"No. It's just like you. Amazing."  
"Awwww"

Bianca stands up and gives him a small kiss on the cheek. Ugh. No wonder I don't want a girlfriend if I have to make the effort to make everything I say romantic. Bianca kneels back down and dips the brush onto a splodge of paint on one of the wooden bowls, before kneeling forward closer to the picture and painting a few more lines. Me and Jay watch her and Latias put the finishing touches on. After about five minutes, they both stand up and look down at their work. I want to see it too so I fly up from the ground and hover vertically over to the paper. I fly a bit higher so I can see over everyone else's heads.

The picture is of a microphone, the kind that sports presenters shout into. It looks perfect for the occasion. We all look at it, and I feel the need to praise them. "That looks perfect! well done!" I coo, though only Latias understands it fully. Bianca must have gotten the drift from my tone though, because she replies. "I'm glad you like it Latios". Latias looks up at me before a bright light shields her from view. When it dies down we see she's assumed her true form, which flies up to me. I fly a bit higher to make sure the humans don't turn around and headbutt my stomach. Latias starts talking to me.

"Ugh! Bianca's form is so constructing... Hey, I'll race you to that cloud" and she points her left claw up at the sky. A single cloud is up there, turning slightly orange as the sun starts to set. "Okay then, just don't be upset when you l-" My last words are said to the ether that replaced Latias when she shot off directly upwards. I follow suit, arms already folded in. Out of the corner of my eyes I can see Bianca pointing up at us. Latias is about 500 meters away but rapidly accelerating. She's not going round win this one though, as I'm closing the gap. I draw my wings back, making myself more streamlined and I get even faster. A second or two passes. Latias is only 100 meters away, but the cloud is getting closer. I decide to go all out, I'll never hear the end of it if she won. I accelerate to a speed so fast, I actually catch up with sound. The result is a deafening "BOOM" whose source will be untraceable on the ground. Latias has yet to hear it as I'm catching up with the sound right after I make it. The result for me is an incredibly loud rumble in my ears, which I block out by folding them tighter to my head. I'm now approaching Latias so quickly she'll barely see me. Just like that, I zoom past her and towards the cloud. A few seconds later I enter it, winning in the process.

A second after I arrive, my shock wave from breaking the sound barrier does, trembling the air around me. A few seconds after that, Latias arrives, excuses primed. "That's not fair, you can go faster than me!". "DUH, what's the point of a race if your not going fast?" I say, which shuts her up. She changes the subject after a few seconds of silence. "Wait, Woah! look at that sunset!" I turn around. I don't really get the appeal of something that 'looks nice' and this sunset is no exception. Blue sea, orange sky, bright ball of orange, reflection on some clouds, job done. Latias sees it in a different light. "Isn't it amazing how all the colors fuse together in the water but remain sharp". She's talking nonsense. ^Yeah. Its wonderful^ I say sarcastically. "We should show Bianca!" she says.

Well, this is the kind of thing Bianca likes to see, and we haven't sight-shared in a while. "Okay" I say, and the ever impatient Latias rushes back down to the ground as I turn and wait for her connection. She doesn't do anything for a bit, presumably trying to find and 'talk' to Bianca. I watch the orange ball sink slowly towards the sea. After about a minute, I feel Latias trying to telepath me. I focus all my psychic energy to the part of me that sees, my vision slowly collecting a blue tint. When the tint covers my entire view, I connect with Latias. I feel Latias' presence in my head, of course, but also Bianca's and... Jay's. Ugh, he couldn't stay out of it, could he? Their thoughts also reach me too, Bianca's are a kind of happy, related to the sight she's seeing now. Latias is concentrating on keeping the connection, and isn't really thinking much. Jay is feeling an emotion that is like a mix of wonderment and scared. Odd. Most people are amazed by the process of sight sharing, but not many are scared. Perhaps he's worried i'll melt his brain. Which is entirely possible, but not at this distance.

Regardless, the connection is up and their seeing and hearing what I am. I might as well put on a show. I accelerate towards the orange ball, traveling fast enough that I'm traversing to the horizon quicker than the earth is rotating to move it, and the sun appears to be coming up. Eventually its at the place it was a few minutes ago, when Latias said it looked good. I look at that image for them until the sun is well and truly set. The sky is still lit though, so when I turn around to head back, we can still see the orange reflected on the higher up clouds. The connection is still there though. I accelerate towards home, diving down through the atmosphere and breaking the sound barrier yet again. For their entertainment, I swoop down and barrel roll a few times, do a loop-de-loop (Catching up with my sonic boom and racing past it in the process) before zooming a few centimeters above the surface of the sea. I can't dive in at this speed, water is like a brick wall at mach one.

I pull directly up, loving the feeling of my insides squashing up. I get to just below cloud level and see alto mare. All the street and waterway lights are lit, pinpricks an odd mix of orange and white appearing seemingly in the middle of the ocean. I know where the garden is even at night, and race there at a slightly more leisurely pace. I get there and see the pinkish glow surrounding Latias, Bianca and Jay that shows they're being controlled by Latias' psychic force. I hover down next to them, floating vertically, and Latias breaks the connection. The presence of their aura in my head disappears, as does the blue tint to my vision, and the pink glow that was around their body blinks off. Bianca rubs her eyes, they were open the whole time and not blinking, even though she wasn't using them. Latias projects the images to their brains, not their bodies, so everything bar the natural things like breathing and balancing stops. Jay, however, suddenly surprised at being in and having to control his own body, forgets to do both, first falling over on a heap in the ground, then rapidly breathing. But he'll be fine. He's not the first.

"That sunset looked really good" Bianca says through a yawn. She glances down at the collapsed and hyperventilating Jay. "But I think Its time for bed"

* * *

Most of probably dont realise how awkward it is to write a story in a doctors clinic. This guy (looks somewhat like Lorenzo: Workers overalls on straps over shoulders, big gut, generally kind) keeps reading over my shoulder. You know who you are. No I'm not to old for Pokémon.

Also, if your the guy from inland security who has to read all this to clear my security check, I'm sorry for my atrocious spelling and I hope you didn't get too bored!

This is the first time I've used Fanfiction's in-built spelling/grammer checker (First one I've checked on a computer not a phone) and I have to say for someone like me who doesn't understand social definitions it's a godsend, even if Aglet isn't in its dictionary (though I've checked, it is in the paper copy of the Oxford English). Let me know how it impacts the writing!

Read and review everyone! Let me know how good/bad this chapter was! was it worth the wait?


	10. Chapter 10: Sleep

Kind of a mini-chapter here, its half the size of the normal one, but it's still no less entertaining. Read on to find out!

Oh, before we start! I got the address of my workplace. Its on the end of a road called "VICTORY ROAD". I'm going to turn up to work (also having done a 45 minute train commute) wearing an ash ketchum hat and fingerless gloves and announce to my fellow workers that I'm ready to battle the elite four...

Anyway, on with the story!

* * *

I'm feeling tired too. Supersonic flight, then intense psychic, then more super sonic flight is starting to take it's toll. Latias doesn't look too good either. Jay has just picked himself off the floor, muttering under his breath. Me and Latias both nod in agreement to Bianca, while Jay uses her as a support to stand back up.

"Okay, well in that case are you two fine to sleep here?" I almost nod, but remember Lorenzo's advice not to leave Jay alone with Bianca. Latias has already left and found a tree to sleep under. I shake my head. "Why not Latios? Aren't you tired?". I AM tired. but Lorenzo's wishes come first. I nod and glance at Jay, who has now recovered and is standing next to Bianca. She realizes what I'm on about. "Oh, what Lorenzo said? I'm sure he was just joking, me and Jay will be fine!" she says in a childish voice. It's not Jay I'm worried about. But on the other hand, I am tired and Bianca HAS just dismissed me of my duty to Lorenzo.

By way of agreement, I fly off to find my own place to sleep, and Bianca thanks me before taking Jay by the hand and leading him back to the house. It's getting pretty dark now, which isn't really a problem for me, though my resolution on the world drops to human level.

Now, sleep in a tree or on the ground? Bonus of sleeping in a tree, it's high up. Minus, it makes my underside cold. But it's still just summer, so its relatively warm. I'll sleep in a tree tonight. Now to choose one. I go to my favorite one, but Latias is there. I consider toppling her out of it but she'd not let me rest until she'd got it back. There IS that other tree, with the nice fork in it that's just the right size, though. Knowing every tree in the garden, I find it quickly and settle down. I fold my arms in and lower myself into the groove caused by two of the trees branches jutting out from the trunk in a horizontal V shape. I'm facing away from the tree, out into the garden. The branches easily support my weight, but they rest right where my arms fold in, so its only slightly uncomfortable in that respect. Other than that, I'm just fine. The leaves are making a 'shhhh' noise as the wind blows them slightly, and they dance in my field of view, blurring slightly in the darkness. Its like white noise. Everything is pretty good right now. Perfect conditions for sleeping...

But I can't. Something is bugging me, though it takes a few seconds to place my unease. Bianca and Jay, alone with each other. In an empty house. At night. All kinds of things could go wrong, and Lorenzo trusted ME to stop that being the case. Jay could attack Bianca. A thief could break in. What if there's a wild rampant Pokemon on the loose!? In my dreamy state, my brain starts to visualize each one of the worsening scenarios. They last seconds in real life, but play out for minutes in my head. Suddenly, I snap back to reality by some unknown sound. This settles it. I'm not going to be able to sleep until I know Bianca is safe.

I dart out of the tree, unable to stay still any longer. I do a loop so I'm facing the exit of the garden that goes to the house, then set off. No blasting through tunnels, no fancy loop-de-loops. I've got a task to do it and I'm going to do it to the best of my weary bodies ability. I arrive at the house to find the back door locked. I tried the handle with my psychic but it wont budge. I start to panic. Bianca would never lock the door, you can only get there from the garden. So it must be Jay. But why would Jay lock both of... them in the house... together.

Something tells me that something else isn't right. Concerned only for Bianca's welfare, I fly up to the bedroom window which I know is hers, its quicker then psychicing the lock and flying through the house. The curtains are drawn but the light is on, though its somewhat dull. It must be her bedside lamp. But I can see shadows projected onto the curtain. Only one shadow is moving though. It's about Jay's height but very thin. Jay standing sideways. But it's as if he's holding something big and heavy above his head, because those must be his arms and they extend above the round thing which is his head. But what's Jay doing with something heavy in his arms. It looks almost like he could swing it and bash it down onto...

Screw solving riddles when you can look at the answer (which may be Bianca being bludgeoned by Jay). I briefly check Bianca's window is big enough for me to fit through before throwing it open with my psychic, milliseconds before I fly through it myself, flying directly into the standing up figure which must be Jay. I blast through the curtain and it whips past my eyes, letting me see the scene before me for a few microseconds before I collide with it.

The shadow is indeed Jay and the light source is indeed the bedside lamp. Bianca is laid in bed to the right of me, Jay is in front. It's a rather large room, with a desk and wardrobe to my left. Neither humans looked surprised by my entry, though I suspect their comparatively slow brains will catch up soon enough. My target - Jay - does have his hands above his head and is carrying something, though it doesn't look heavy. He's not wearing a t-shirt either. It appears the cloth object in his hands would be his t-shirt, which both solves that mystery and creates a new one...

Why is he taking his shirt off in Bianca's room?

Even my brain doesn't have time to provide an answer to this. Because by that time I'm on him. I fly full pelt into the side of his chest, slowing me down in the process. I decide now would be the time to stop before I hit that rather solid wall at the other end of the room, which I successfully avoid.

Jay opts to maintain his momentum and slams side on into the wall, which cracks as he hits it and slumps onto the floor, knocked out.  
I look at Jay, waiting for him to move. Bar his chest moving up and down, he remains still. With that threat temporarily disabled, I turn my neck to Bianca. Whatever he was doing, he's not doing it now, and Bianca should be thanking me for it. If she's praising me though her facial features are all wrong. Its almost like she's angry.

Then she speaks to me, in a voice which sounds like the icy winds of a frozen wasteland. "Latios. Would you please tell me why you've just pelted my boyfriend into a brick wall after appearing out of nowhere when I gave you the instruction to go and sleep elsewhere?" She's not shouting, or even speaking loudly. If anything, it's a whisper. But is by no doubt a very, VERY angry whisper. Her covers are pulled up to her face, so I can't take any cues from the rest of her body language. But I recon she's angry.

This is far to complicated to explain via vague gestures and nodding, So I go ahead and set up a telepathic link with her, and start my explanation. "Lorenzo put me in charge of looking after you, and you just telling me to disregard it doesn't make it good to ignore him. I'm looking after you because you've said yourself. 'The older one looks after the younger' and since I'm older I'm looking after you" Bianca's facial expression doesn't change. She speaks out loud, presumably to maintain her icy voice. "Ok. But that still doesn't explain the fact that Jay wasn't doing anything wrong or threatening and you've thrown him into a wall."

"Ah, that. Well the door downstairs was locked so I thought he might have locked you in or something. I flew up to your window and saw his shadow on the curtains and it looked like he was about to hit you so I had to stop it.". Bianca doesn't look convinced, like she's waiting for more information. I decide to go on the offensive instead. "Anyway, what was he doing here taking his shirt off in the first place? Why not get changed in the bathroom? Except he hasn't got a change of clothes because we didn't know he was staying over. So why is he taking off his shirt at all?"

Bianca shifts the subject, still talking aloud. I'm hovering horizontally alongside her bed, like I'm on an invisible bed of my own. She's still laid down though, and something tells be by the way she's moving that she doesn't want to get up. "Perhaps we should check that Jay's not in a coma before settling whatever imaginary ulterior motives you think he has." She says, still not moving like you'd expect a concerned girlfriend to. The change of subject is also suspicious. I'm growing increasingly uneasy about this situation, are they trying to hide something from me? She glares at me awkwardly. "Erm... Latios? Little privacy?" The telepathic link is still up, so I ask her via that. "Why?". She replies via her thoughts, not wanting to voice this one out loud. "Its a bit warm in here, especially on a mattress with a blanket. I'm only wearing my under clothes.". I fail to see her problem with this. Not only am I completely the wrong species to be attracted to her, I've known her since her mother changed her nappies. Underwear is nothing new. I send her those thoughts, but add-on the end "But okay, I'll look elsewhere. Do you want me to pass you some clothes?". Bianca replies almost immediately via the link. "No... Its fine... Why don't you go over to Jay and try reading his mind and see what state he's in?". I comply, severing the connection and hovering over to Jay.

He looks quite roughed up. It's not like in the movies, where they knock out a few bricks or leave a dent, but the hero is otherwise undamaged. The wall has a crack in it, with bricks showing behind, but is otherwise fine. Jay, on the other hand, looks like he got run over by a cruise liner. His cheeks got a lot of small cuts on them. While they're nothing major, there are a lot of them. The main impact with the wall seems to have been shared between his pelvis and his shoulder, which both look very bruised but not broken. Perhaps his over inflated ego acted as an air bag. His legs remain almost injury free, with only a few major bruises and cuts. Only a few of the cuts around him are actually bleeding, so there isn't too Mich blood and he won't die of blood loss. His mind, however, could be as cracked as the eggs I put in the pancakes this morning.

I hear shuffling behind me. Despite promising not to turn around, it sounds like Bianca has wrapped herself with the blanket as she goes and picks up her clothes off the floor.

Something in her actions gives me a pang of concern or a feeling that something isn't as I'm being told it is, the uneasiness creeping back into the situation. Something to do with clothes being on he floor. The feeling goes almost immediately though, and I focus back on Jay.

I lie down in front of him then look for his aura, easy as it's the one that's in a dreamy state. I channel some psychic into it and just like that I can feel his emotions and think his thoughts.

He's dreaming. It's a nonsense dream about fish and a pillow case, he won't remember it when he wakes up. I probe deeper into his subconscious, locating the reason for his sleep. Is his brain-damaged, or took a shock and just resting? His mind is unusually clear and I quickly discover that it's the latter.

In the physical world, Bianca still isn't ready. Well, while I'm in Jay's mind with some spare time, lets see Jay's memories of what just happened. Perhaps I can solve the mystery of why he was taking his shirt off. I think this thought a tad too intensely and Jay's subconscious picks up the thought and provides a sarcastic response, "Perhaps, you idiot, he was just warm?" Jay himself (his conscious) isn't aware of my presence in his head, but his subconscious is. Not that the two ever 'talk' to each other in any human I've ever met. I find the memory from a few minutes ago and watch it.

The first thing I note is that humans are lazy when it comes to remembering stuff. He's only remembered himself, Bianca and the bed, the lighting (but not the light source) and a few random objects like a clock and a wardrobe. And they're all the wrong color and the shapes are a bit off. Secondly, in his mind Bianca looks a lot prettier. His memory of her is of someone with perfect skin, more even tones and much more vibrant eyes. Thirdly, he's not remembered his thoughts. So we'll never know what reason he had for taking off the shirt unless the context provides it.

Which we're about to find out.

The memory starts in Bianca's room. She sat on the bed saying something but its not audible, he's not remembered what she's said and its been replaced with a muffled mumbling sound. Jay (Me, my viewpoint) is stood in front of her, looking down at her. She yawns before posing a question that again is not understandable. Its got Jay's heartbeat raised though. She stands up and gives him a hug. Briefly afterwards a full on mouth to mouth kiss follows.

This is awfully disturbing as I'm seeing this as if I'm Jay, and I'd never consider interacting with Bianca like that. Ever. She's like a sister to me.

To distract myself from the awkward situation, I decide to be angry at Jay. How dare he be so intimate with Bianca! She's still young and he's COMPLETELY the wrong person for her to have as a mate! This thought is also too loud. "She's, like, 18. And what do you mean the 'wrong person'?" the frontal lobe of his brain argues. Even that part of him is arrogant, and it can't even remember her age.

As it's not actually Jay and he won't know what I've 'said', I be completely honest with it. "You are the most arrogant human being I've ever met". We're not talking, just projecting words into each others neural paths. It's very complicated, which is why it's incredibly annoying that Jay's rear prefrontal cortex is using it to have a go at me. "You're the worst legendary I've ever met!"

This time I am close enough to him to throw enough energy into his brain to reduce it to mush, but I dont think that 'natural selection failed to remove him' is a valid reason for murder.

The memory continues to play, but just as the kiss breaks up, Bianca (in real life) touches my pelt. I'd been so busy arguing with Jay's brain that the contact startles me and the connection breaks. The memory landscape in front of me breaks apart, to be replaced with a view of Jay from the ground. I notice Bianca's hand on my neck and turn around. She looks worried, so I give her a reassuring coo and levitate of the ground, before sending a single sentence to her head. "He's fine, just concussed. He'll wake up for breakfast tomorrow morning, though don't expect him to remember how this happened"

Bianca's face lifts, she looks a lot happier. "Oh good! I should probably dress his cuts though..." And she gets up to fetch the first aid box that we keep in the kitchen cupboard, leaving me alone with Jay's unconscious body.

I look around the room. It's like the films where officer Jenny arrives at a crime scene. The window is open, the bed's blanket is on the floor on the opposite side of the room, there are bits of paper strewn here and there (must have happened when I flew past at high-speed) and most disturbingly, the victim, who is laid out on the floor above a crack in the wall. Officer Jenny would set about finding the person who did it. But I want to know what happened. Why was Jay in Bianca's room, Why was he taking his shirt off, especially when Bianca wasn't... wearing any... clothes.

The answer comes to me, like a lightning bolt. It races out and physically punches me in the stomach. Or at least, that's what it feels like. It's so obvious too, I can't believe I've missed it. If they were too warm why was the window closed when I arrived? Why hadn't they opened it? Why were the clothes scattered on the floor instead of neatly put away? Why was the back door locked to prevent anyone's access to the house? The answer to all of these and more is now clear as day in my head.

Bianca and Jay wanted to be mates.

At this point my brain explodes with objections and questions, a few of them valid only for Pokemon relationships, but most of them apply to Bianca and all of them are negative. How can she be attracted to him? He's the lest nice person on earth! She hasn't cleared this with me or Lorenzo! SHE TRIED TO TRICK ME! Jay should be sleeping in another room! She's to young to make decisions like that! Why hasn't Jay cleared it with us first? They've only been going out for a month!

The objections are so intense and so numerous I begin to question my original answer. If my brain disagrees with it that much surely it mustn't be true? I'm hovering intently up and down through room, searching for an alternative reason, but my mind is blank for once.

By now I'm so tired its unbelievable. Its amazing I can hover at all. It's like the combo of an intense day and figuring out Bianca's relationships is actually physically wearing. I There's no way I can interrogate Bianca while I'm this tired. I'll have to do it first thing tomorrow. Until then, I won't mention it. Latias will also have to be there so I can talk whatever it is I'm going to do through with her and then make a valid decision. Now I just need to wait for Bianca to get back, which she does, plus a little green box with a white cross on it. The same one that she dressed my wound with this. morning.

I hover over to the two as Bianca sets herself down in front of him. She moves him so he's no longer curled up at the bottom of the wall but laid out like a pencil away from the wall. Then she breaks out the gauze and plasters. She trained with the water ambulance for some time, so she knows what she's doing. I float fixated on the scene of her working. It's rapid but accurate even though she must be tired. White cream, gauze, tape it up, move on, white cream, pressure bandage, tape up, plaster, plaster... How she knows what's suitable for which wound I can't tell and my brains given up on finding patterns at this late hour. Bianca has reached his stomach on the treatment and gasps as she looks at where my snout impacted on it. I'd not seen this earlier because he was lying on this side, but now I see it looks immense. A giant purple bruise that's about 15cm across spans across his side, fading as it reaches his ribs. It's kind of green at the epicentre and Bianca takes a second before carrying on, smearing some different cream on the bruise while mumbling. "Lucky not to have cracked ribs. How he didn't throw up I'll never know."

Eventually Bianca finishes and stands up, looking down at Jay. I'm next to her, floating horizontally at about three-quarters head height, my neck angled so I can see Bianca. She yawns before looking at me and speaking. "I can't move him and if you move him you could damage some of his wounds. Lets just leave him here and go to sleep." And with that she walks over to her bed, picking up the cover off the floor as she goes. She gets in her bed, pulling the cover over her and looking at what I do.

I don't do anything for a second, I'm so tired my brain stalls. Floor here or fly back to tree? I'm just flying back to the window when Bianca speaks. "Latios. You can sleep in here tonight".

Thank Arceus. I switch off my psychic and my body drops to the floor like a bag of bricks. Bianca smirked before closing her own eyes. Even Bianca's situation eludes my brain as I fall asleep almost before my wings hit the ground.

* * *

Yes, the brain does have more than one set of consciousness or 'personas' in it, on more than one level of thought/conscious, but I've simplified it a bit for the sake of not everyone being or wanting to learn neuroscience.

So, smaller chapter this time, but still so much in it. I didn't dream this one either, I've added it for those who like romance or seeing Latios give Jay his just desserts.

As always, Read and Review and I'd like to extend a special thank you to all the people (Yeah, more than 1!) who sent me a PM telling me how much you loved it! They all made my day! Everyone on this site totally ROCKS!


	11. Chapter 11: Waking and Debating

Mini-chapter over, time for Latios' and Latias' response. What would you do? Think of an irritating person who makes one of your friends really happy. What would you do? I'm not sure what I'd do...

What do you think of the new front cover and description? If anyone else wants a Pokémon 3D modelling for any reason, PM me. I've got 300 on file now, And I'm doing custom backgrounds, animations and book covers. Free, Of course. My sisters desktop background is an Absol.

Also, this is the first ever time I've written in 1st person and the only books I've got that are in 1st person that I can take a base from is the hunger games. Anyway, Story time...

* * *

**Chapter 11: Waking and Debating** (Cheesy Rhyming Title FTW!)

"Hello Latios". The first thing I hear, waking me up. It's said in a whisper, but I can tell it's a male voice. A young male. It can only be Jay. He doesn't sound best pleased either. Judging by the crack in the wall he left after I headbutted him unconscious into it, I'm not suprised. "Explain why I woke up collapsed at the bottom of that wall this morning."

I crack open my eyes. He's on his knees, leaned in close to me, still not wearing a shirt. He's pointing with one hand to the wall I threw him into. There's sunlight outside, but I can see behind Jay, Bianca laid out asleep on her bed. I've still not responded to Jay an he takes it upon himself to take my silence as refusal. "Let me fill in the gaps. I was minding my own business, talking with my best friend and the next thing I know I'm punched into a wall by some unknown force for no reason." his voice is calm, but projects the idea that he might not be fully sane. He continues. "Latios, was that unknown force you?" The question is said with unmistakable menace.

He's whispering because he doesn't want to wake Bianca. He's actually being quite clever now, because the moment she wakes he can pretend he's being nice, or if I've hurt him she'll see that. In other words, I can't touch him. I remain silent. Whatever I say will result in a negative outcome so I might as well stay silent and see what happens.

"Really interesting thing here Latios. Look at this bruise on my side. It looks just like your head. Care to explain?" This seems a tad paranoid, the shape of my head has nothing to do with the shape of the bruise, even if I did make it. "Just what I thought" he says in his intent whisper, taking my silence as acceptance. Which in a way it is.

He pauses, thinking. But whereas I expected retribution, his voice softens and he asks me a question, no longer sounding psychotic. "Latios. Why?". I didn't expect this. He's asking for my motive, like it isn't obvious. But he's not trying to hurt me or Bianca, so the temptation to tell him is growing. "You can do your head-talking thing with me. I don't mind. Just stop with the random violence." Its not so much I thought Jay didn't want me to telepath him, more I didn't want to be associated with him in any way. But the invites open and he's being partially reasonable. I tell it all to his brain on one long sentence.

"I want to protect Bianca no matter what and make sure that no one ever hurts her, physically or emotionally. I want to make sure she gets the best mate she can and I didn't think you were it, on account of your abusive remarks to me and Latias and terrible attitude." He looks initially suprised by the sound of my voice in his head, then shocked at me calling him rude. "I saw your shadow through the curtains and made the incorrect assumption you were trying to harm Bianca, and as her brother I wouldn't let that happen. My motive for attacking you changed when I saw you and Bianca in the process of intimate courting. As her brother it's my decision who I think is an acceptable mate and you are not. Thus your coupulation with Bianca was unauthorized and forced, and should have been stopped" Okay, that last bit is false since I only decided that after I attacked him, but the idea behind it is true.

I stop sending the words and Jay leans back away from my face. He genuinely looks like he's thinking all I've said over. After a few seconds he speaks. "So you know..." He breaks off, but I know everything now, so whatever it was he was implying, I know it. I nod. "Oh.. Okay."

"What are you planning to do then? Can't I go out with her any more?" Ooooh that prospect is so tempting. But Bianca would be distraught if I tore then apart. This is too complicated to think about when I've not eaten anything for 12 hours. I remember yesterday postponing judgement until breakfast, so I'll do that. "Decide over breakfast" I send to Jay's brain, and a few seconds after that he gets up. "Alright then. Do I have permission to wake her up?"

Its nice of him to ask. As I start hovering horizontal, I glance at the Skitty clock on Bianca's wall. 9:00AM. We've all over-slept, so its okay to wake her. And so long as I'm watching he wont try anything too intimate. Especially if I've got my claws out and I'm showing my teeth. I nod my head. His face looks happier, a smile creeping onto it. "Thanks.". He's being very civil. He walks over to Bianca's bed and kneels down in front of her face.

He strokes her hair which has lost its Latias-wing shape in her sleep. It's a very touching and natural gesture which I'd be tempted to say is caring if it wasn't by the arrogant soul that is Jay Wills. She opens one eye. "Hi babes" he says in a ridiculously romantic voice. Bianca rubs her eyes but stays laid down. She does, however extract one hand from under her blanket and trace it across Jay's major facial features, though that bit is partly obscured as I'm hovering behind Jay.

"Ugh... How you feeling?" She asks him in a slightly croaky voice. "I slept like a log. On the floor, rolling around." She misses the humor on this and its reflected in her face which I can see as I float to the right of Jay, who's quick on the mark to reassure her. "I'm fine. What about you?" Both of them stop touching each others heads as she sits up, revealing a pink nightie. "I'm okay, oh hi Latios, still a bit sleepy". She throws in my hello like the floating blue dragon is something she sees immediately after waking up every day, which in retrospect it is. She yawns then looks at the clock. "That the time already!?" She jolts up and onto her feet, treading the blanket to the floor. "You Two, Out, shoo! I need to get ready, lots of stuff to do today" and she starts ushering us towards the door. I let Jay through first, mainly because he's closer, then fly through myself. Bianca slams the door behind us. "GO WAKE LATIAS, BREAKFAST IN 10 MINUTES" She bellows through the door. I hope that didn't wake Lorenzo, though it's unlikely as he would have gotten home late, super tired, plus he's as deaf as a diglet. Jay's walking down the stairs and I follow, reaching the ample hallway without banging my wings on anything.

"Wake Latias?" Jay says and looks at me. I nod, not saying anything either in Lati or by telepath. Jay opens the kitchen door, then then turns the key in the back door before pressing the handle down and pushing outwards, the door opening. I take special care to move my wings back so I can fit through the door and Jay walks out, followed by me. He heads towards the arch way and the garden. I do the same, floating with my arms in and horizontal, ready to stop him from doing anything rash. I still don't trust him, even if he was reasonable with me this morning. Aside from the psychotic voice at the start.

After about 3 minutes we reach the pond in the garden and Jay stops. "So what now? We just call her?". I shake my head. 'Call her'. Like she's some pet who bounds towards her owner upon hearing her name. No. Idiot. Besides, she's a deep sleeper.

Since its a good few minutes back to the house and I'd catch him if he ran, I set off to my tree where Latias was last night. She's still there, enjoying the sleeping spot I normally have. Time for revenge for stealing it and cutting me yesterday.

I position myself beneath her and unfurl my arms, before pushing her all the way up and out of the branches. She wakes up just as she starts falling, an alarmed look on her face. "What the...". THUD. She crashes belly first into the grass. She wont be hurt because we've both fallen from twice that height and our bone structure is strong, giving us a non lethal terminal velocity, like a few bug pokemon and all skitties have.

She groans as the lifts her head up from the turf. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" She says, shouting at the ground. "Stealing my spot. Now come on, breakfast.". She turns her head and notices me flying round the tree and down towards the ground. "Oh, You. I'll get you back. Breakfast? Cool, I'm going for a dip first though". She sets off towards the pond, and I do too, both of us folding our arms in to dive into the water. We get there in seconds and I notice Jay, stood at the edge admiring his own reflection. Perfect. Before diving in, I pull a sharp turn and drag my wings in as I go past him. The water that had formed his reflection suddenly leaps out at him as the air current I created pushes it out of the way and onto him. I have just enough time to her him say "Bast-" before I'm in the water and his words are lost.

Latias is next to me and humming a song about water as she 'swims', eyes closed. I telepath her as speaking underwater is unadvised. "We need to go to breakfast. I caught Bianca and Jay courting last night and we need to deal with it." Latias seems less bothered than I was, but still concerned. "Awww how cute! She's growing up! But with Jay? Eww. Fine. Lets sort it out."

She opens her eyes and pulls up out of the water, the same time as me. Jay is stood at the edge of the pond, dripping into it. "Oh that looked ACE!" Latias squeals when she sees him. Both of us fly round so we're hovering horizontally over the water infront of him. I remains still in the air, Latias floats up and down slightly. She's also chuckling slightly, which to Jay sounds like a rapid chopped up coo. "Fantastic. Can we go now?" he asks in a less-than-thrilled voice. I nod and set off floating towards the garden at a walking pace, Latias at my side and Jay walking behind. He can't understand us so we're fine to talk.

"So what kind of courting exactly?" Latias asks. Since there's no point telling her at breakfast, I might as well tell her now. "Intimate. I think the expression in English is 'French Kissing'" That last bit comes out a bit weirdly because Lati doesn't have a word for 'French'. But Latias seems to understand, so its fine. "Wow. It must have been intense for her to scratch him that much" she awes out loud. "Oh, no. That was me. I kind-of thought he was harming her so I tackled him into the wall". Latias thinks about this for a second. "Normal tackle or Attack Tackle?". Good question. Thinking back, it was more of a headbutt, since a tackle attack involves transferring the momentum of your entire body to the other pokemon, or in this case human. "If it was an attack, It'd be more like a headbutt. I wasn't really thinking at the time, I just flew into him"

"I KNOW YOUR TALKING ABOUT ME!" Jay suddenly shouts from behind us.

Latias stops in her tracks, an action in itself unusual for her as she rarely stays still. She flies around towards Jay, though I can't see exactly as I've not turned around quickly enough, it was that unexpected. When I do, she's centimeters from Jay's face. "Listen you" She starts talking to him in a rapid, intent voice, one that she hasn't used many times but does use when she's very angry. It's still Lati though so he's got no idea what she's saying, though surely the tone has got across to him. "Why do you think everything we're saying is about you? I don't care what your reason is, I don't care why you do anything, I care not one bit about YOU. I care only for my sister Bianca and if you do any single thing to upset her I will make YOU feel one hundred times worse through an intensive campaign of physical violence." She glares him in the eye for a few more seconds before flying back to me. and continuing the walking pace forward.

"I hope its pancakes again!" She says to me, her tone resuming that of a carefree schoolgirl (Or schooldragon. Though we dont go to school). "So, what are you thinking then? About Jay?" I ask her. Childish as she is, she understands these human romance things ten times better than me. "Well, " she starts, we've reached the archway, so Bianca's house is less than a minute away. "I think its a BIT soon in there relationship for mating, for starters."

This I just about understand. For pokemon, the space between initial meeting to courting is about 3 days, with a weeks courting before mating. This matches the animal instinct that we all still have to produce as much offspring in our lifetime, which for most pokemon is shorter than a human lifespan. 'Love' still comes into it though, but for us it's more chemical - noses are more sensitive and so can collect pheremones, Psychics can find a comparable aura, things humans can't - and so are more intense than human romances. Most pokemon dont mind having multiple partners either, whereas for humans, romance is a thing between two people, from what I can understand, though I dont know why.

Latias' point now is that because Bianca is human and only expected to have one mate over a longer lifespan, all the stages of a relationship can be longer.

"Okay..." I nod, signaling her to continue. "So perhaps their rushing things a bit. I means, she's seventeen so everything is fine in human terms. But they've barely been going out for a month" I look puzzled at her. She explains. "'Going out' is like... being more than friends but not courting. Right?" I nod. "So I think we should let them carry on and not tell Lorenzo, BUT tell them to keep the courting to a less intimate level and no mating until they've been going out for... I dunno. Six months? We'll figure it out at breakfast."

It's an effective role reversal. Even though I'm older and should be dealing with the younger humans, Latias knows more about human relationships than I do because she watches those kind of drama TV programs with Bianca. By this point we're at the house. Jay has been obediently following us like he's a prisoner. Or a slave. Either way, Latias rushes infront and goes through the still-open back door first, her wings not even brushing the sides. I stop to let Jay go through, then follow him myself. I fail yet again at drawing my wings all the way back, though, and catch the tips on the door, jerking me backwards.

I succesfully try again and catch up behind Jay, who is being led through to the living room by Latias. I follow suit, and all of us end up in the living room. Bianca is sat on the sofa in front of the door, eating a bowl of cereal. She points to the coffee table with her spoon and speaks with her mouth full. "I set out some cereals bowls and stuff. Get what you want." . Jay looks unsurely at us. Latias unfurls an arm and points to the spot next to Bianca on the sofa. The command is clear. 'SIT'. Credit to Jay, he does this without further prompting or arguing.

Bianca looks first to her left at Jay, who's wearing a serious face, then up at both of us. I can pinpoint the exact moment when she realises she's been rumbled, because she suddenly lowers her shoulders. "Oh. Is this... about... last night?". "Yep", I yip, perhaps slightly too happily, as I float over to the other sofa that's at a right angle and rest myself on it. Its not exactly sitting as I'm just resting my rear on it and leaning back with my wings splayed out. This hurts my tail fins after a while, so I dont do it often. Latias has it easier and just transforms into Bianca before sitting down, pulling the laptop from under through table and onto her lap as she does. My wings cover pretty much the entire sofa and Latias tries brushing them from behind her before giving up and smothering the one where she was sitting with a pillow, before sitting back on it. Not the most comfortable arrangement for me, but it'll do.

Unlike humans, we (and Pokemon in general) find no embarrassment in discussing relationships and private lives. There's no reason for embarrassment, everyone is entitled to a relationship and is expected to do whatever they like in it. Which is why I find it perplexing that Bianca and Jay seems to be equally embarrassed about our meeting and blushing.

Latias starts off, speaking via the laptop. "FIRSTLY, WE'RE NOT GOING TO TELL LORENZO, PROVIDED JAY BEHAVES HIMSELF". Instantly they both relax, Jay more than Bianca. Latias certainly knows say she's doing. Bargaining material. Get them on side before you give them bad news. "SECONDLY, WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT LAST NIGHT, SO DON'T BOTHER LYING OR TRYING TO DECEIVE US." Nods from the two of us. They don't trust themselves to speak. "NOW THAT'S DONE, WE'RE HERE TO DECIDE WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT YOUR TWOS RELATIONSHIP. ME AND LATIOS DON'T HAVE ANY OBJECTION SO LONG AS YOU TAKE THINGS A BIT MORE SERIOUSLY." Actually, I don't think I'd ever be OK with Jay being Bianca's mate. But so long as she's happy, I'm happy.

There's a silence and Bianca takes it upon herself to fill it. "Okay, but what do you mean by 'more seriously'?" Latias looks at me. "Tell them to take longer over things and don't rush ahead" I say, and Latias starts typing out a message when I finish. "WE BOTH THINK YOU SHOULD PROGRESS YOUR RELATIONSHIP SLOWER. YOU'VE ONLY JUST STARTED GOING OUT AND SO YOU STILL DONT KNOW IF THE OTHER IS RIGHT FOR YOU." Jay looks a little offended, but not majorly. Bianca is absorbing this information. "So what your saying is... Be a little less intimate for a while?". Typical Bianca, always has the right words. I nod and Latias taps out a "YES"

Latias then tries to tell them our 'no mating for 6 months' idea, but trips up trying to use an English cliche. "BUT JUST SO IT'S WRITTEN IN SAND, W-" Bianca interrupts to correct her. "Latias, the phrase is 'written in stone' not sand. Carry on." Latias' face - which is disguised as Bianca's face - shows a brief flash of annoyance "RIGHT, WHATEVER. WE BOTH THINK THAT YOU SHOULD NOT MATE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN GOING OUT FOR 6 MONTHS". I watch their reactions.

Bianca just shrugs her shoulders. "Seems fair.". Jay's facial features twist so they look slightly irritated, but he keeps his nerve. Jammy as he is, he even turns the whole lecture romantic. "I can do anything so long as I stay with you" and he puts an arm around Bianca and kisses her lightly on the cheek. I roll my eyes and Bianca gushes. I can't resist winding Jay up now, so I telepath him. "Keep it in your trousers". He snaps his head around, suprised at first and then slightly angry about the inference. "Shut it Latios!" he barks at me. "Oi!" Bianca retaliates and jobs him with her elbow. "Be nice to Latios". Of course, only Jay 'heard' what I said, and his eye twitches, visibly irritated. I grin on the inside... Fantastic!

"Now that's over with can we have breakfast?" Jay finally asks outloud. Me and Latias both get up and pour some cereal in response. I say me. Latias gets some cereal for herself and then for me as I'd end up spilling it everywhere. While she does that I fly over and lie belly-down on the top of the grand piano in the corner of the room. The top of it is cushioned and its perfect for large animals like me to lie down on and still see through TV at the same time, which Bianca is just turning on. Latias puts my bowl of cereal in front of my mouth. I dig in and watch everyone else.

Bianca has got the TV remotes and is waiting for the TV to come on. Jay is choosing his cereal. Latias is eating. We look like the perfect family. Bianca has finally flicked on the news and is getting her own cereal. she goes for the yellow one with a cowboy on it. Personally I dont like that one, its too sweet. I turn my attention to the news caster. Their running a story on yesterdays's race and the impact that it has on tourism. Boring. Aside from that, the room is filled with the sound of eating and spoons rattling against bowls.

One by one we all finish our food. Latias finishes first, then Bianca. Bianca starts telling us what needs to be done. "Latios, You can go and order the cake from Tonies, Latias if you want to go with him too that's fine." Latias' human form smiles. "Me and Jay will do some shopping for the food we decided on yesterday". "Who's got the money for that?" Jay asks. Bianca hold up the purse she had in her pocket. "Me. We're loaded, Dint' you know?"

What Bianca says is partly true. Her family is quite rich, mainly due to some large plats of land that were sold off by her great grandfather when Alto Mare started to become a tourist attraction. Combines with the exuberant price of the house and value of both the gardens, their total worth stretches into the millions. But MOST of them have been humble about it, not showing off and generally living quite humble lives. Bar her mother, but we don't really count her as family.

Bianca puts the purse back in her pocket, not saying anything else on the matter. See what I mean? She didn't boast about it to her boyfriend or anything. She walks out of the room as me and Jay finish our cereal. Latias puts her bowl and spoon back on the table in the center and walks over to me. I can tell she's impatient to get going, she really likes going to tonies because he always gives us a free molten ice cream. Once he realized that we liked the flavor of ice cream but not the temperature, he always melts the ice cream he gives us into a cup and gives us a straw, which is not only a tonne easier to eat/drink but is also a lot nicer when its warmed up. We don't generally like cold foods. Latias starts patting my head and stroking me while she waits for me to finish. Its nice and irritating at the same time, because jay is still here and he might get some ideas that it's okay to copy her, which it isn't.

I finish and raise my head from the bowl. Latias picks it up with her human hands and carries it through to the kitchen. I fly up off from the piano and through the door, horizontal the entire time with my winds folded down over my body to fit through the door. I fly left into the kitchen and two Biancas are there. One has no beret on and is sliding a bowl into the sink, the other has a beret on and is texting on her phone.

Bianca's phone is weird. It's called a 'blackberry', which is a kind of fruit that used to grow before it became extinct. It looks nothing like what a blackberry looked like, and its not edible. As proved when she told us it and Latias tried putting it in her mouth. It's still go that crack in the corner of the small display, but Bianca kept it because "I love this phone". Personally I think that brings her dedication to Jay into question if she loves a phone. What's that even called? Technophilia? (AN: Yes. Yes it is.)

Nether have noticed me enter the room, or if they have, they've chosen to ignore it. While Bianca texts she moves her mouth to match the sound of the letter shes pressing. Its like being deaf and watching someone talk in slow motion. She looks up to think of how to continue the message and sees me. "Oh good, Your finished." Other Bianca (Latias) turns around too, turning into her normal form when shes sees it's me. "Wait Latias..." Bianca cautions her. "I still need to tell you what you're doing, right?". Latias turns to Bianca and looks at her, the picture of 'focused'. "Right, You're getting a cake for Lorenzo. Okay?". She Nods. I'm listening too, because odds are she'll forget most of it. "We want it icing on top with something to do with Lorenzo's new job in a TV studio, but since Tony is the professorial, let him decide what exactly. Use his whiteboard at the back, you know, the one with the offers and prices on it" - Latias nods again, showing she understands - "to tell him about the job and what kind of cake we want. Right?" Latias starts heading towards me and the door. "WAIT ONE MINUTE!" Bianca shouts after both of us as I turn to go out of the kitchen door. We both stop and turn our necks to look at her.

"Invisible. Do you want to be in the paper?" she says, refrencing the fact that we want to be kept secret, lest some trainer try and catch us. That in itself is an irony. To avoid capture and to maintain our freedom, we must confine ourselves inside the house and garden, limiting our freedom in the process. Of course, its not a total irony. The freedom we'd get with a trainer would be much less compared to the relative freedom we have now. In other words, A pokeball is smaller than a house and garden. So I've heard.

Latias loves attention and would love to be in the newspaper. "YES!" she shrieks, but turns invisible anyway. I do too. We're now completely invisible to the human eye and all cameras as far as I know. We both drift through to the front door, latias opens it with her psychic despite the fact that I'm closer. The door whacks me in the side, missing my wing. "Idiot" I mutter as she apologies and makes a joke about me being too fat. I'm not, she's just thinner than me beacuse her species is by default. So I tell myself.

I fly through the door with Latias in tow, which she nudges closed with her wing tip. My hands are still folded in, so I set off towards to sky, going directly upwards while Latias does all manor of barrel rolls, twists, turns, loop-de-loops and high-force maneuvers. I watch her movements closely and think how much she reminds me of those hyperactive toddlers that play in the main square in alto mare, generally being a pain to everyone, especially the pidgy, which they run after to watch them fly away...

* * *

Hmmmm... for some reason I think this chapter just lacks... PAZAZZ! I dunno. I'll fix it in the next one. Read and review with weather you agree or disagree, and with what exactly is missing... because I sure can't tell.

A bonus for all the people who've sat through the story so far and who have given good reviews: A Youtube video of nyancat replaced with Latias: /nrQn6OIckhI

Oh, Just collected my GCSE Results, Almost failed English which is not very encouraging :/ I'LL KEEP WRITING THOUGH! *Majestic Pose* (Though updates may slow down as I've got to sort out forwarding the results to my new job etc...)

Read and Review and all that, Seeing the "[New Review]" Email really does make my day! Almost as much as "[New Follower]". So if you're thinking about doing either, DO IT!


	12. Chapter 12: Right on Cue

Chapter 12: Right on cue.

Once we get up to 1000ft, I stop, Arms folded up and head looking at sunny Alto Mare below. Whereas I'm hovering steady as a rock, Latias is bobbing up and down, impatient to get to Tonies. Eventually she can hold it no more, and she starts talking to me. "Race you to Tonies?" She says with a grin. I can beat her in this race for sure. "Sure, We'll st-" I begin, but she's already off. I can't go supersonic this close to humans and besides, I've only just had breakfast. Instead I fly slightly downwards and use earth's gravity to help me accelerate.

While Latias has a head start, she's also got NO sense of direction, despite the fact that we both have internal compasses and have lived here our entire lives. In other words, even though her body should make it impossible for her to, she's set off in the wrong direction. I can actually see Tonies logo printed on the sun shade outside the parlour. I look around to find Latias. I've gone down to about 400ft, she's still at 1000ft and she's slowed down a lot, moving her head back and forth. She's looking for the parlour at the other side of Alto Mare. I don't bother putting her right, she'll find it eventually, plus humans below would hear my 'shout'. We're both still invisible to the naked human eye, but I scan the surrounding streets before landing next to the shop anyway, just in case.

The parlour looks like an average Alto Mare shop. A big plate window, with 'Tonies Confectionary' written across it in funky writing above a picture of a standard stereotypical ice cream. The window has a sun shade coming out of the top of it, the one I spotted from the air. Outside are a few metal chairs and tables, all with groovey holographic surfaces that make rainbow colors as you shift your head. This distracts me a bit like it does every time. How does the rainbow shape happen? Why does it change when I move my head? How was it made? I snap out of this distraction though and look through the window to check no customers are in there. While I'm invisible, they can't see me, but the door opening seemingly by itself without prompt may give them pause for thought.

Its empty, bar an old man stood at the counter, thumbing through a well worn puzzle book. Tony. I smile without meaning it, Tony is just such a nice person you can't help but smile when you see him. I carefully float over from the centre of the allyway to the door, making sure not to clip the tables, chairs, or sunshade on the way in. The parlour looks old, but its actually really hi-tech-y. The door, for example. Not only is it almost completely clear glass, you also dont have to open it, as such. There's a button (like a big metal plate) that you can press and it opens the door FOR YOU! Its got a caricature of a human in a wheel chair on it, but me and Latias use it when we come because pushing a door is a difficult task when you dont have hands that articulate at the wrist. I press it and the door swings open, albeit slowly but all the same... SO COOL!

Tony looks up from his puzzle book and waits about 3 seconds before speaking in his old-man voice. "Let me guess. Latios?". I become visible, whining as I do, also rotating to float vertical as I weave around the tables and towards the counter. "How do you always guess!". He again correctly guesses, this time what my coo implies. "That door never opens itself. And if it was Latias a lot more stuff would be broken or fallen over, that girl just can't keep still. Speaking of, where is she?". I unfold my arms and point my elbows down and my claws up, then move the bit where their attached to my body (I guess you could call it a shoulder) up and down, whilst giving a "Dunno" sound. She could be anywhere above the island right now.

"Hmmm... shouldn't you be more concerned about her? She's your only family!". I doubt I should be concerned. So long as she's flying, nothing could get at her. The only reason I would worry is if she was already hurt, or Bianca had given the order for her to stay with someone who might hurt her. Jay, for example. I cock my head sideways to show I'm not sure where he's coming from.

He waves his hand like he's dismissing the entire conversation. "Never mind, hey, Latios, check this out." and with this he points to the big window at the front of the shop. I turn to it and fail to see the interesting side. "What?" I ask, enhancing the tone so he'll understand. "Well, I'm getting more and more business these days as word gets 'round, so that's more and more money to spend on cool stuff, since there is sod else to spend it on anywhere else!". I reflect on the fact that Tony is the only pensioner who actually enjoys new stuff and cool tech. The rest seem to want to use shotguns against it. "So I got this special window to use for when you guys come round!" He doesn't even sound 70 anymore, he's so caught up in the new window. I coo interestingly, I'm genuinely interested in this new window what will it do? Change color? become invisible? Tony picks up a TV remote control from under the counter and points it at the window. "Watch...". I look at the window as tony presses a button on the controller. The window suddenly glazes over, almost completely opaque but letting through the light from the sun at the same time. It looks like the window in our bathroom at home - you can kind-of see outside but not quite. "THAT IS SO COOL!" I coo a bit too excitedly and fly up horizontally to it, trying to see if there's any angle where I can see through it. Close up, far away, dead on or out of the corner of my eye, I can't see through the window, even though it was perfectly see-through a second a go. Tony is clearly pleased with my reaction. "I knew you'd like it. Look, I can just switch it clear, or not, clear, or not!" He flicks the window on and off and it becomes see-through, then opaque, see-through, then opaque. I'm impressed.

Tony puts the control back under the counter leaving the window opaque as I return to the counter.

Tony resumes his frail-ice-cream-man voice and attitude in a matter of seconds. "Anyway, What will it be then. The usual? Will the other on be turning up?" . Ah, this is where things get tricky. Latias was MEANT to be here to write the request out for him, but she's not here yet, so I dont know what to do. I guess a drink while I wait won't be too bad though. I nod my head. "Righteo! Two Legendery Sundays, coming up. Melted, of course." he says to himself as he whirls around to make them.

A crashing noise is heard outside shortly afterwards. Tony doesn't even blink, he continues to chop, mix, mush and melt various ingredients "I'm guessing that'll be Latias...". I turn towards the noise, in time to see the door vibrate and a 'thung!' noise come from it, Which I suspect is caused by Latias flying into it. Sure enough, the door electrically swings open after a few seconds and Latias' aura enters the room. She turns visible, before leaning her neck down to rub her snout, mumbling all the time in Lati. "Ow Ow Ow Ow, stupid door, that stings... AHH that stings! STUPID CLEAR DOOR!". Tony turns around, addressing Latias and waving a spoon around in the air to match his words and emphasize his point. "y'know, there's a door at he front of my shop. Try not to fly into it." The moment he speaks, Latias raises her head and looks visibly better. Tony just has that effect on people. And Pokemon. "^No, Really? Wow^. Hey, groovey window by the way!". After that short outburst, she turns into Bianca and walks over to the counter. "Latios has already ordered, before you ask." She pauses before stepping back.

Tony continues to prepare our 'beverages' while we float there kind of awkwardly. Eventually Latias gives up and walks to the whiteboard next to the counter, picking up the special pen with her human hands and starting to write on the board. Tony in the meantime has finished our drinks and has placed them on the counter top. He notices Latias drawing on the board and looks at me. "See. Can't keep still." Then he turns to Latias. "I dont mind you drawing on the board, Latias, but you need to take the lid of the pen off first." Latias looks at the pen and tries removing the lid, her human face straining as she tugs at the pen. "Wrong way round" Tony says, walking towards the imitation Bianca. She gives up and passes the pen to him, and he turns it around and flicks the lid off, making Latias' attempts look a bit foolish. He hands the pen back to her and she holds it in the special way that they all do when they write words. Tony stares at the whiteboard, interested in what Latias is writing. She finishes the first sentence and moves backwards so tony can see it. He reads it out loud. "L.. L.. Lorenzo? Has a..  
new... Job, is that? Lorenzo Has a now job?" He's leaning closer and moving his thin framed glasses around on his head. Me and Latias nod. "Oh, That's wonderful! Brilliant! What's he doing? What's his job in?" Latias goes back to the whiteboard with the pen.

Halfway through her writing though, we both hear a noise outside at the front of the shop. Sounds like people. Me and Latias disappear in a heartbeat (Latias glowing blue briefly as she resumes a normal form before turning invisible), Tony somewhat confused by this. His hearing isn't the best anyway, and we'd heard them with our super sensitive hearing. We were right though. A few seconds later, the electric door swings open and a sunburnt woman pushing a baby in a pram walks in. Behind her, a cubone, which must be her's as their not native to the island.

"Hello? Do you serve ice cream?" the woman says in a terrifying American accent. I ponder about this woman's intelligence, at the same time trying to figure out how to stay out of her way so she doesnt get a face full of feathers at any point during her stay that would give the game away. Meanwhile, because humans aren't very observant, Latias has managed to put the special pen down on the counter without the woman realising that it appeared to be floating in mid air.

"Yes ma'am we do ice cream, what would you and the little one like?" The woman edges closer into the store, pushing the pram closer to the counter and me and Latias closer to the back door set into a big glass pane that leads into the garden. The cubone follows at the woman's heels, looking around the entire time like something is going to leap out and attack him. It's possible that he's sensed our presence but doesn't get what it is. Like when Bianca says the hairs on the baclose of her neck are tingling. Either way, he's looking left and right, moving the bone he keeps over his shoulder as he does. Tony notices him. "Ooooh, is that a cubone? What type are they? We do Ice creams for pokemon too."

The woman is glaring at the specials board. "What's a Legendery Special?". Tony replies in what I swear is the best sales platter. "That's an Alto Mare special. We got all the local berries that the legenderies of Alto Mare are rumored to have liked, crush em up, and make a giant out of them. They come in smoothie or ice cream." The woman looks impressed as she reads down the list of berries in it. "That sounds cool, Dwane loves the Lati's dont you!". The child in the pram must be Dwane, because he smiles and hold up some Alto Mare tat in the shape of me. "We'll have a child size Legendery Ice Cream, and I'll... Have...". She continues to ummm and errr over what she's having while me and Latias 'creep' out of the open back door.

We get out and away from the woman, flying up to the top of the tree that is still there from the first time we visited. Latias starts to talk to me in a hushed tone. "Oh My Arceus did you see that brown pokemon? Sooo CUTE! Shame the woman it's with looked like such a b-". "LATIAS! FOCUS!" I say a tad louder. She shuts up and looks me in the eye. "Listen. We wait out here until woman and child have gone, then we carry on with what we were doing as normal. Until then, stay out of the way of the woman and her child." She looks bursting to ask a question. "Yes?". "Can I talk to the cute pokemon? What's it called anyway?" I consider this. It won't be able to tell its owner, but she might hear the conversation. She could telepath it, but it might look quite odd if it starts talking to itself.

In the end I give Latias the benefit of the doubt. "It's called a Cubone. And I guess it's okay to telepath it, but DON'T mention the thing on its head." Latias looks puzzled. "Why?". "Just don't. Don't even mention it in passing". The first Cubone I ever met was a lost tourist one. I was helping it find it's owner and I just happened to ask why it was wearing a skull on it's head, at which point it tried attacking me with the bone they carry over their shoulders. Latias looks like she's going to push further but decides against it.

By this time, Tony has managed to sell and serve 3 ice creams and the woman, baby and Pokemon are stepping into this enclosed garden. Me and Latias watch from the tree. "Is it okay to sit in this here garden?" she shouts inside, after she's stepped outside. She waits for the reply, which is a "sure, go right head!" from Tony, before pushing the pram with one hand and carrying the ice creams with the other next to one of the tables with the rainbow circles on them. She takes 'Dwane' out of his pram and sets him on a seat, telling him to not "Get up and try to escape". She places the tray of ice creams on a stand in the centre of the table and passes a small one to 'Dwane'. By this time the cubone has plodded it's way next to the table and is looking up with longing and sad looking eyes through it's morbid helmet. The woman finally notices him. She looks down and says "Mama didn't forget you cutesy!" in what could possibly be the most shrill voice ever.

The cubone - understandably - looks no happier.

The woman takes an average sized ice cream from the stand and passes it down to the cubone, who's paw is an ideal shape to grasp the cone. "Thank You" it mumbles in it's own language, but as all pokemon languages are universal it's irrelevant as me and Latias understood it fine.

The cubone walks over to a far corner of the garden and sits down, taking a lick of the ice cream every so often, but mostly just staring into it's lap. Latias looks at me, intention clear. I nod and she - granted very carefully - flies down next to the cubone. She telepaths it and I tune in to her aura so I can hear it to. Unlike sight sharing, telepathy is a relatively weak psychic ability, so there's no pink glow about the cubone like there was with Bianca when they sight shared. Latias psychics a message to the small brown pokemon. "Hello, Don't be scared" The cubone jolts, clearly scared out of his wits about the sudden voice in his head. "What was that?" It snaps out loud, saying it so quickly we almost don't hear it. Latias quickly continues, wanting to calm the cubone, who is right now nervously shifting left and right and up on it's feet. "Relax, we're kind, we won't hurt you. I'm Latias, my brother Latios is here too. We aren't going to hurt you or anything, I just want a friendly chat, because, you know, we get bored too"

The cubone sits back down, looking even less thrilled than before, if that's possible. It mumbles again, speaking to his lap. "Oh, you guys are the Legendery Duo. What do they call you? Oh yeah, the Eons. Well whoopie for me." It says in what I would vouch for as the most sarcastic pokemon ever. That's really quite rude considering she was only trying to be nice. Latias pauses, not quite knowing what to say. "What's up? Why are you so sad? There's no need to be like that to us, most Pokemon are delighted they get to meet us?" She asks innocently. "Yeah, not this one. All that toddler goes on about, every day and every night is 'Watios, Watias' and ignores me! Then there's the milktank of an owner that I have. I'm not even going to go into that." Me and Latias are both shocked. Most pokemon we meet treat us as royalty, we are Legendery, after all. But this one seems to hold us in contempt, for some reason. In fact, the sneer it looks like it's wearing (I can't tell properly though, its rather gruesome mask covers its mouth from the angle I'm looking at) suggest it holds everything on earth in contempt. Latias tries making friends. "Awwww c'mon, that's not our fault! Anyway, we don't have much to do around here. Would you like to be friends?". Up until now the cubone has been sad, bordering on manic depressive. So yet again it looks at this invite from a very objectional and pessimistic point of view. "Why'd I want to be friends with you? So you can be upset when I have to go? So I can hear how great your life is compared to mine? Huh. No Thank You." He says that like its the final word on the matter. Latias looks a bit put down, and drifts closer to it, close enough to lay a claw on its shoulder. "Oh, Okay, I'm sorry. Anything we can do for you while your here?". The cubone considers this for a few seconds before responding. "You could leave me alone to wallow in my own never ending depression. Just Go Away."

I've had it with this pokemon. Not only is it's attitude really abysmal, but no one puts MY sister down like that. I fly down and get within telepathable range of the creature, before speaking to the his brain as Latias backs away from it looking quite sad. "Hey, Cubone. Why'd you put her down like that. She was just being nice?". The cubone is quick to respond this time. "Oh, you must be Latios." says the most defeatist tone ever. "Don't you get it? I dont care about you guys. Just leave me alone". Admittedly, I do feel sorry for the poor thing. But he was rude to my sister and I won't stand for it. "Apologise to Latias first!". The cubone finally looks up from his lap and shouts to where he thinks we are. We're actually a bit to the right of where he's shouting, but he doesn't know that. "Why should I? I don't even know where you are, you can't even show yourself to me. Why should I apologize? I bet the reason you two don't even show yourselves is because your ugly or fat or something.".

I loose my temper and right away know I've said the wrong thing.

"Hey, Bony? How's your mother?"

The Cubone whirls around and waves his bone around randomly, presumably trying to hit where he thinks me and Latias are. "MY MOTHER IS DEAAAAAAAAAD!"

Oops.

"WHO'S SKULL DO YOU THINK THIS IS? HUH? I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU WEAR YOUR MOTHERS SKULL!?" He's pointing at the skull on his head whilst twirling, whirling and spinning the bone around in his other hand, putting on an impressive display which would be quite scary if it wasn't for the fact it's being wielded by something that is not even half a meter tall.

Never the less, Latias was leaning down directly behind the depressed Pokemon and didn't move back in time, and the bone had smashed her in the side of her head. She starts to yelp but manages to stay silent and reel backwards away from the now crazy cubone, clutching the side of her head. She's fine, just a bit shocked. The Cubone's owner finally notices and she turns around to address it in her annoying accent. "Cutesy, what's up? Calm down!". The cubone levels the femur of his dead mother at his owner. "SHUT IT YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A WOMAN!" The cubone shouts at her in a language she doesn't understand.

Now, I always thourght Cubones were generally depressing Pokemon. Really, anything that goes around wearing it's dead mothers body parts as a fashion accessory is a bit morbid. So I can see why my comment has put it in an out-of-character rage. The other Cubone I met was a generally happy little thing, it liked talking to me and we were getting on quite well until I mentioned it's headwear. I'd expected this Cubone to be much of the same, which it wasn't. Instead of being nice to start with it was sullen and depressive, although like the last one it has become angry and hostile upon mentioning it's dead mother, which on retrospect was a bad idea. If anyone mentioned my dead father I'd deliver a hyper beam to their face.

This thought occurs to Latias too as we both fly back up to the top of the tree and out of harms way. A bit further and we're out of human hearing and above the houses. "No. Not funny" she says, shaking her head to emphasize her disapproval. "I didn't realise the thing on it's head was it's mothers skull! The poor thing! Do they all do that then?". She's angry at me for winding it up, but still inquisitive. I answer her. "Yes, they all do that. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that, but he was being mean to you and I wanted him to stop." Latias looks disapprovingy at me. "Right. When he's calmed down I want you to apologize". I dont want to say it outloud, but she's right. So I just nod.

Beneath us the Cubone has started to calm down. He's stopped shouting and he's gone back to his corner on the garden, minus one ice cream. Said ice cream is on the floor infront of him, melting into the grass. Cubone appears to be staring glumly at it. Poor guy. All he wanted was to sit and have an ice cream and we ruined that without even meaning to. I can't see any other option for me here but to go down and apologize. I actually want to, he looks so sad.

I fly down and hover horizontally at his head height above the grass, not that he or anyone else can see. I'm to his left, looking at him. He's looking down at his feet as he's sat down again. He's got the bone rested on his lap and he's muttering unintelligible things to himself. I decide I can't see him suffer any more and talk to him telepathically again. "Listen, dude. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that, I was angry that you weren't being nice to my sister, though I realise you don't have any reason to be nice to her" The cubone continues to stare downwards like I haven't even said anything. Perhaps I'm telepathing the wrong mind. I continue though, and ask a question. If I dont get a response I'll try something else. "You don't like your owner, do you?" The cubone raises his head briefly, then lowers it again. "No" He mutters. So I am getting the right mind. Suddenly, I have an idea. "Does she like you? You dont have to speak outloud, I can hear your thoughts". The cubone hesitates before responding via his thourghts. "Really? No, she doesn't like me either. She pretends to like me, but it's just a front. At home everyone ignores me." Even the voice he THINKS in is depressing. I decide to put my idea into action.

"In that case... How would you like to live with me and Latias?" It's a gamble, but Latias seems to like him and the garden's plenty big enough. Cubone thinks about it. "I thourght you didn't like me either?". I'm a bit startled by his response until I remember that I've made an insulting comment about his dead mother and that doesn't exactly reek about being friends. "I did that out of anger and I'm sorry. You seem like a good guy though and these other people are the ones who are making you sad, am I right?" He considers this before answering.

"They never listen to me. They always forget about me and the lady only ever uses me as an accessory when she goes out looking for a mate after the last one left her. The toddler just ignores me like I'm not even there. I don't like them at all, I suppose that's why I feel so down sometimes. If I left they wouldn't miss me." He thinks. I still think he needs more persuasion, and after hearing about his current situation I can't stand the possibility that he'll have to walk out of here and home with them. "The person who looks after us is really cool, and it gets a bit lonely sometimes with no one else to talk to". Latias must have been eavesdropping on our mental conversation, because she starts telepathing Cubone too. "C'mon, we've got a huge garden, get fed tonnes a day and I really like you. These other people are putting you down, I bet you'd be really fun and have a great time if those lot aren't ignoring you!" This seems to have a better effect than anything I've said.

The Cubone gets up, still not very tall but looking a lot more sure of himself than he was before. His bone his grasped in his right hand and he's looking dead ahead instead of at the ground. He says the next bit outloud, presumably thinking he's looking at an invisible me and Latias. Actually we're behind him, but I don't want to ruin the moment by pointing that out.

"Perhaps we got off on the wrong foot. I keep wanting to leave my owner and now's the best chance I'm going to get. I'm coming with you two."

0-0-0-0-0

The technology for the window exists by the way. If you've ever been to the toilet in a cafe in Berlin ('Cafe Richard' is the translated name. Yes I understand German. No I don't listen to ramstein) in the last few years, you'll have seen this tech used in the doors of toilet cubicles. They really are awesome, So I've decided to include them in this.

Ooooh, Only 10 days left before I start work! I'm on an outward bounds on the first week too, so expect no chapters uploaded the week after next. I may do, just dont hold your breath. 


	13. Chapter 13: Cake

So, Latios and Latias now have a Cubone when they originally went for a cake. Reminds me of when my mum went out to buy some groceries and came back with a new car... She still hasn't told us how that happened...

0-0-0-0-0

Latias has to stop herself from shrieking out loud, her face is absolutely beaming, she's that happy. I look at this situation from her perspective. The only pokemon she ever has to play with is me, and I always beat her at whatever game she chooses. So not only are we saving him from what sounds like absolute neglect, but we're also cheering up Latias by giving her a new playmate. I turn back to Cubone, telepathing him in order to figure out how he's going to stop his owner from taking him with them. "Easy," is his thourght response. "I'll just hide and they'll forget they ever brought me".

I'm shocked. I genuinely didn't realize that there were some owners that cared that little for their pokemon. "Well it looks like their finishing up, so hurry up and hide!" I 'say' back, turning to the woman and child who are scooping up the last bits of ice cream. Cubone runs with his stubby little feet to the thick tree in the centre and hides behind it. I gotta admit, the way he scampered over there is definitely what Latias would call 'cute'. There isn't anywhere else to hide, the garden is bordered by buildings on each side and there's only this tree for him to hide behind. It's thick enough to conceal the small Pokemon from the humans though. He's got his back to the tree and looking directly forwards hands at his sides and overall trying to make sure nothing sticks out from behind the tree trunk. From my sideways angle he looks like the worlds cuteist ninja. He looks ready and alert, but the skull he's wearing as a helmet/mask gives the impression that there's something somewhat menacing about him. Sooo like a ninja.

The woman has now finished her ice cream and stands up and looks around while stretching, then puts the toddler back into to the pram and pushes it off, all without saying a word. She pauses briefly at the door back inside to push the pram over the slight step, before re-entering the parlour and exiting the garden.

Me and Latias are both gobsmacked. She's looking at me with a face that says "Did she actually just do that?". The woman has. She's wandered back inside and presumably away from the shop, completely forgetting about her companion Cubone. I fly back into the parlour, just to be sure. She's leaving. "Thank you, that ice cream was fantabulous!" She shouts to Tony in an irritating voice as she steps out of the shop through the main door. Tony is behind the counter, puzzle book in hand, but he shouts back "No Problem! Tell your friends!" and the door thuds shut. I fly back out side where cubone is still behind the tree. He really doesn't want to go back.

I fly in front of him and hover horizontally with my head at his level, arms folded in, before checking one last time that no one is around before turning visible.

"Ah! Big!" he shouts and brings the bone down from his shoulder and pointing out in front of him looking ready to attack. "Woah! Relax! It's me, Latios." I say outloud, which he understands. "I know! Your just a lot... Bigger than I thourght you were. Plus you appeared out of nowhere". He puts the bone back over his shoulder. It's a common thing a lot of pokemon say when they meet either of me or Latias, but mainly me. From Cubone's perspective, I'm more than four times bigger than him. I suppose that's like Bianca running into a moving breathing 3 story building. He's looking at me through his helmet, eyes flickering over my various features, mostly the wings. He finally decides on a question to ask me. "Errr... Don't you have arms?".

Before I can answer him though, a loud screeching noise swoops down past me and embraces him. A fully-visible Latias has just swooped Cubone off the ground in a really tight hug. I fly back to get a better look on the situation. Latias has Cubone aloft about 6ft off the ground, almost squashed in her arms which can actually fit round his stomach under his arms. All credit to him, he doesn't struggle or anything. Perhaps he doesn't want her to drop him. He's looking at me with a 'And this?' look on his face. "Soooooooo fluffy!" Latias squals, though as he has only got a close up view it might bot be immediately obvious as to what she is. "Cubone, this is my sister Latias. Latias, Cubone, Cubone, Latias."

Cubone looks flattered by the attention he's receiving. "Er. Hi? Latias?" He says rather sheepishly. I didn't expect her to hear him over her own squealing, so I'm suprised when she stops her crushing hug and holds him extended from her arms with her claws under his arms. "Hello Cubone!" She says, giddyness still filling her voice. He's coping quite well. "So, is that what I call you two? You don't have other names? Just Latios and Latias?" he asks, clearly confused about what he should address us by. "Well, there's only one of each of us sooo... Yeah." Latias responds, her smile ecstatic. They look so nice, it's like big sister and little brother.

I don't want to ruin it but we've spent way longer doing the relatively simple task of 'ordering a cake' than we were supposed to, and there's still tasks for us to do when we get back. I have to interrupt. "Latias, we still need to order the cake and a bunch of other stuff". Both of them turn to look at me. It's still unnerving the way that Cubone looks dead on through that skull, but I'll get used to it. Latias starts to put Cubone back on the ground. "Oh yeah!". Cubone has to ask. "Cake? You're ordering cake? Who from? What for?" I explain as Latias puts him back on the floor, whereupon we all make our way into the parlour.

"Ah, so, quick recap for you. I'll explain more when we get back. The old man who looks after us and our home has got a new job. We decided to give him a suprise party to say congratulations, and this cake is part of it. We're getting it from this shop, because the owner knows us and we like him. We also want to invite him." I rattle out, as quickly as I can that I think he'll still follow. I'm flying horizontally above him and Latias is zig-zagging her way to the door. I can't see him as I'm above him, so I can't guess his facial expression, but I bet he still has a lot more questions.

We reach the parlour door and Latias flies through without a hitch. Cubone walks in looking left and right as he does and I catch my wings on the door as I'm too focused on what the others were doing to put my wings up. While I'm trying again with my wings up and my body still horizontal, Tony looks up and notices Latias. "Oh, so you hadn't abandoned me! Your drinks are here" - he points to the counter with two card cups with straws poking out of them - "but what was this you were saying about Lorenzo and a job?"

Latias flies over to the counter and hovers slightly higher to give Tony her version of a thanks, rubbing the feathery side of her head against Tony's wrinkley cheek and cooing as she does so. He thanks her and gives her a scratch behind the ear before she flies back vertically to the customer side of the counter. I've made it to the door and Cubone is just looking up at Latias from her left when she turns into her Bianca form, much to Cubone's suprise. "Ahh! Human!" he cries and he jumps back a few paces, wielding the bone like a club yet again. "It's still Latias, she can shape shift" I say at the exact same time as Tony leans over the counter and sees Cubone.

"Who do we have here then?" He asks. There's a slight hesitation until Latias turns and bends over to pick Cubone up, presumably to indicate to Tony their friendship. I've hovered over so I'm behind them both, and Cubone looks unsure about the faux-human picking him up, he's still pointing the bone at her. "It's still Latias. She's just shape shifted" I repeat, and he looks once at me before swinging the bone back over his shoulder, allowing Latias to pick him up, which she does. She puts her human hands under his arm pits and raises him to her head height before placing him on her shoulder. I doubt the real Bianca could do that as they look like they weigh quite a lot, but hey, this isn't Bianca that's doing it. Cubone looks a bit unstable but he grabs hold of the top of Latias' head to keep steady. His feet are about the right size to stay on her shoulder though, so he stays put.

"Oh, so your friends? Hmm... Didn't my last customer bring a Cubone with her?" Both Latias and Cubone realize that Tony's caught onto them, and Latias brings an arm round to hold him and he grabs hold of Latias' head with his other hand too, keeping the bone clutched in the crook of his arm. It'd be horrible of him to make us give him back now, especially now we've heard what it was like for him.

So we're all very relieved when he leans in and whispers to Cubone (though loud enough for us all to hear) "It's okay, I don't blame you. She clearly didn't care about you and these lot will look after you". After which he grins and leans back behind the counter. Latias lets go of Cubone and Cubone releases his other arm, picking his bone back up with it.

"So, what's this with Lorenzo's new job?" Tony asks for the second time. Latias walks back to the specials board, picking up the pen from where she left it when the woman walked in as she goes. Cubone is still balancing on her left shoulder, looking around at all the things he can see from this height. He stops looking around when Latias starts writing on the board.

"You guys can write!?" he asks sounding a bit shocked. I explain because Latias is busy and can't talk in that form anyway. "Well I can't really as the pen won't fit in my claws" I say, drawing out my left arm to show him in detail the spaces between my claws. "But since Latias can shift into human forms, she fan hold the pen and write. She's been learning from the person who looks after us". Cubone nods like he understands, then adds his own thourghts. "So that's where your arms are!" He exclaims, referring to the fact that me showing him my claws was the first time that he'd seen my arms, which were otherwise folded away - very well disguised as a pattern in retrospect - at the side of my body.

At this point Latias has finished writing and leans back for tony to observe. She's written out most of the stuff instead of doing it one sentence at a time, so Tony takes a while reading it outloud to himself.

"L... Lorenzo's new Job is a... TV Presenter?" We both turn to nod at him and he smiles before continuing. "TV Presenter. We're having a Suprise Party to... e? C. Celebrate and would like you to make a cake for him and come along yourself."

He pauses before responding. When he does he sounds quite happy. "Oh that's Wonderful! Of course I'll come. You want a cake too? What kind? Sponge? Chocolate? Berry?" He's talking to Latias, and she responds by rubbing the board with her hand, making the words that were there before disappear, before writing on the board again. Same as last time, after she's done, she leans back, and Tony looks at what she's written. "A sponge cake? Sure. When are you having this party then?". Again with the board. "Tomorrow? Okay. Anything else?". Latias is just about to put the pen down when she remembers what I was just about to shout at her. She writes a few words on the board and lets Tony read them. "Special Icing, TV Presenter? what do you mean by..." He figures it out of his own accord. "Oh, you want me to specially ice it for his new job!"

We both nod, the movement on Latias slightly upsetting Cubone's balance slightly. He manages to stay put though and Latias turns to face Tony, turning Cubone in the process. "Okay then! So, I'll be round with it tomorrow at..?" His statement trails off, presumably meaning he wants us to answer it. This is a bit stupid as it's obviously going to be at our house (he knows where that is, we've brought him round a few times). Latias raises her hand and puts up all of the fingers and her thumb, I don't know why though. Tony understands it better than me and I realize he was asking for at what TIME not at what PLACE.

Tony counts the number of fingers Latias is holding up. "So 5 o'clock? In the afternoon, obviously. Okay! Anything else?" He asks, looking at me as he does. I can't think of anything else, though I do want to know how Latias knows the party will be at 5. But I've nothing else to ask of Tony and shake my head. Cubone is still resting on Latias' shoulder (I think he likes being there, it's high up and close to another Pokemon/Person) when she also shakes her head.

I fly over to the counter where the two cups with straws are and look at them, then to Tony, while Latias does something with the board and puts the pen down. "Yes Latios, those are yours. Take them outside in case someone else comes in." Tony responds, and Latias walks over and picks up both of the cups, her human fingers easily fitting around them. "I'd join you, but it looks like I have a cake to bake!" he says as he opens and walks through the door behind the counter. Latias walks over to the door, taking measured paces between the tables and chairs while I stay horizontal and fly over the top of them. She makes it through the door and out into the garden, where she sets the drinks down on the grass in a clear space near the tree. I get through the back door without incident as I see Latias pick up Cubone off her shoulder and put him down next to the drinks. I fly towards them as she transforms back into her normal form. She lies stomach-down in front of one of the cups and folds her arms in. I do the same but with the other drink and facing the opposite direction, so instead of being next to her I'm looking at her. Cubone waddles towards both of us and sits next to my drink, looking sideways at Latias. Latias has already started drinking her drink, straw in mouth and contents slowly draining, accompanied by the occasional gurgling sound.

"You want to try?" I ask Cubone, who is now staring at the odd spectacle that is Latias drinking through a straw. He responds, still looking at Latias as he does. "No thanks, I'm not that thirsty". "Alright" I respond back as I start drinking my own drink. I suppose it has been a bit of an odd day for him, not helped by the fact that he's now with two of the most famed Pokemon, and we're drinking... from some straws. It is incredibly convenient for us though. A cup is just awkward because we can't see our mouths and might miss them, drinking from a bowl is a bit primeval and you can't do it with liquids that are thicker than water - like melted ice cream - so a straw is the best way to go as far as Latis are concerned.

Cubone turns to look at me, before speaking. "Your wings... They're really big, aren't they?". He says it like it's a question even though he's already given himself the answer in his question. It is also a bit obvious. "Yeah" I respond, raising my head and taking a pause from my drink. "They're bigger than Latias' if that's what your thinking". Latias turns at the mention of her name, but keeps the straw in her mouth. while we're talking she realizes its trivial and goes back to her drink. The comparison between me and Latias isn't what he's thinking though, because he follows it with something quite intelligent. "But they mustn't be that useful, you don't need wings if you've get psychic". Of course, he's kind of right, so I nod, but I also provide a correction. "Yeah, but their still useful if you want to do sharp turns or fast maneuvers". "Oh," he says and continues to look at either two of us but not asking any other questions. He's definitely quite patient: I hate the ones that bug you about how cool it is being a legendery and how does it feel, as I suspect it feels the same as being normal. The attention is nice but it gets irritating.

I continue my drink.

It's a nice drink. The kind that's refreshing and fruity at the same time. Definitely very flavorsome. I can't see how much is left, but it's a bit less then I expected because it runs out when I thought there'd be some left. The flow of molten ice cream to my mouth stops a second before a slurping noise comes from the cup, indicating that it is definitely empty. I do a disappointed coo out of habit, and Latias opens her eyes. She'd closed them out of habit after she'd gone back to her drink - subsequent to Cubone asking about my wings - out of habit, whereas I'd kept mine open and watched Cubone, who for the most part just sat an either observed me, Latias, or the ever present bone in his paw.

Finished, I fly up and decide the best thing I can do at this point is bug Latias until she finishes. She's following me with her eyes and so is Cubone when I hover directly over Latias, out of her eye sight unless she wants to stop drinking, which she won't until it's empty. I unfold my left arm and prod the bulge that she has where her wings meet her body. "Hurry Up" I say as I do this, in a kind of rushed tone which suggests I'm mimicking her impatient attitude. Cubone has turned full on to face me and it looks like he's smiling. I grin back, and he does the first moment that I've ever seen from him that speaks positively. He gives me a thumbs up and a wink.

With this encouragement, I prod her again, a little harder. "Hurry Up". This time she responds, albeit somewhat muffled as her lips are still sealed around the straw. "Stop It". Cubone smiles more and I repeat the nagging routine with Latias. This time she turns her neck to face me. "Stop it, I'm enjoying this." Then she looks at Cubone. "You stop encouraging him. He's bad enough as it is" she says, starting to smile when Cubone does his 'what, me?' face. She goes back to her drink. After A few seconds I prod her one more time. One time too far.

Latias flies up and around to face me, hitting me with her back as she goes. She's opting to look as tall as possible and hovering vertically with. her neck angled so her eyes are looking right at me, down her snout. She looks really quite angry, it's quite funny. "I SAID STOP AND I MEANT IT!". Cubone is sniggering out of the corner of my eye. We're both hovering 4 ft off the ground and he's looking up at both of us, interested to see where this is going. I look at Latias, who is right now somewhere between gas mark 5 and active volcano on the scale of red hot anger. I can tell when she's angry because she does the same things as me: puts her wings flat out and looking as big as possible, makes her tail fins stand out rigid and puffing out all her main other feathers, making her look generally quite big. her face is also quite red, not that someone unfamiliar would notice behind her red feathers. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to apologize, even if she is over reacting. "Sorry for winding you up, I won't do it again."

"Your right, you won't" she quips, and launches an ice beam at me.

A few thoughts run through my mind as she charges it and then fires it at me: First, she's rather taken a liking to that attack recently. Second: Why did Bianca teach it her? and Third, I can't let that hit any bit of Tonies garden when he's being so nice.

So with regret I let the ice beam slam into me, freezing most of my exterior in a block of ice, bar my head, tail fins, and wing tips. It's unpleasant, but not particularly damaging. It does however have the effect of interrupting my psychic and concentration though, so I crash to the floor. A few seconds after I hit the ground, Latias flies back down to her drink and continues slurping her drink down cooing slightly like nothing ever happened.

Cubone is rolling on the floor not-quite-laughing at what just happened. He isn't laughing out loud to avoid Latias punishing him too. My head is outside of the ice block, so I can speak to him. Which I do. "Quit laughing around on the floor and break open this ice block!". Said ice block is starting to cool me down and it's getting really quite cold. Cubone looks up from over his stomach at me and stops chuckling. He pauses for a few seconds before jumping to his feet.

The cube and me had fallen directly downwards and I was hovering vertically, so I'm frozen upright as Cubone walks towards me. I must look huge. "And what do you expect me to do now?" he asks as he reaches the front of the cube and goes out of my eyesight. Most of my neck is frozen so I can only bend it so far, and It's not far enough to look at the diminutive pokemon that I presume is stood in front of me and my encasing ice block. It really is getting quite cold. "Well, do you know an attack that could crack the ice?" I ask him. No response. He must not have heard, so I repeat myself. "I said, Do you-" but I'm cut short by the sight of Cubone suddenly jumping up and into my vision. The bone he perpetually carries is raised above his head, held by his right arm. I'm suprised at first, but I think I understand what he's doing soon enough, though I'm still suprised at the height of his jump. He reaches the apogie of his jump at about 30cm above my frozen head. With the 'up' part of the jump over, he heads downwards. Alarmingly fast. He reaches my head level in under half a second, then - almost faster than I can see - swings the bone downwards. The attack looks familiar but I can't put a name to it.

Either way, the bone slams into the top of the ice block a few centimeters from my face. The action forces Cubone to slow down and stop within a very short space of time and the resulting energy is transferred to the ice. While Cubone raises the bone and starts to fall, landing with a grunt on the ground asthe ice starts to crack. A large fissure develops from where the bone had hit the ice to my neck, obviously where the ice is weakest. The crack starts to run deeper and I try and articulate as many joints as possible in order to make the crack grow.

Sure enough, the crack starts to spread deeper and it reaches the red triangle on my chest. Other tiny cracks have started to form as I exploited the ice's weakness and I make use of them now, pushing my wings in opposite directions. The ice starts to make a funny noise as all the integral cracks start to join up and form one giant weakness in the structure of the ice.

Suddenly and without warning, the ice splits through the centre and shatters everywhere else. My wings come free, as do the chunks of ice surrounding my arms, tail fins and neck. I wasn't supporting myself though, and as the shards of ice fall to the ground I do to, landing on my front with a rather painless THUD.

I lie there for a while, enjoying the suns warmth on my back and wings.

Cubone siddles up to my face and prods it with his bone. "Latios". He waits a second then prods me again, this time closer to the snout. "Latios. You Okay?". I grunt a "Yes", the tone of which implies that I'm enjoying myself and want to be left as-is. Unfortunately, the tables have since turned (As Bianca says. It's ment to mean that the situations have reversed, though I don't understand why). Because no sooner has Cubone stopped prodding me than Latias has flown into my view. She copies what I was doing not 5 minutes ago and starts prodding me with one of her claws whilst telling me to "Get up"

Well, I suppose I deserve it, but all the same... I turn to Cubone, flying away from Latias' prodding. "I suppose now we've had our drinks we should show you where we live?". Cubone looks visibly excited by that fact, as he should as it sounds like a heaven to what he's been treated too before by the sounds of it. "Yeah! Lead the way!" he says joyly, waving the bone at the exit from Tony's garden.

Oh, he thinks we're walking.

Latias turns to face him, hovering horizontally and slightly higher than me.

"Cubone... How do you feel about heights?"

0-0-0-0-0

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with L...

That's right, it was "Lack of Reviewers!". I want all those who got it wrong to write a few words on how good/mediocre/bad the story so far is! DO IT OR CUBONE SHOVES THE FEMUR OF HIS DEAD MOTHER SOMEWHERE UNDESIRABLE :)

Also, any other wallpaper requests? I'm without computer at the moment, but they take minutes to do and I get bored sometimes. Post requests in reviews and I'll post forenotes with links to them ASAP. 


	14. Chapter 14: Game

Finished job number 1 and got a new phone, so sorry for the delay, I''ve been occupied and my old phone wouldn't work. If the words are a bit off I'm blaming it on the new auticorrect and me not being able to reach the keys on this new phone, it's huge.

**HELLO TO THE NEW FOLLOW/FAVE-ERS! YOU, ARE ALL AWESOME!**

Also, for those with a somewhat cultured lifestyle, Snooki (Jersey shore, I don't watch it, but I know those who do) has decided to call her baby Lorenzo... So there's that...

* * *

**Chapter 14: Game**

Cubone blinks like he didn't quite catch what she said. "What has that..?" he starts asking, until he realizes exactly what the pair of supersonic flying dragons have got in store for him...

_2 Minutes Later..._

"No! NO! FLY STREIGHT! WE DON'T NEED ANOTHAAAAAAAH! STOP! NO! NOT AGAIN. JUST NO.". Cubone is by far the most annoyoing passenger I've ever had. Admittedly he's the only one who has sat on my back while I've done a barrel roll, but all the same, for a guy who looks like a total badass he sounds petrified by the current experience. Me and Latias are flying in our standard 'passenger' formation: I'm at about 1000ft and Latias is 50 directly below that, ready to catch in the unlikely event that said passenger does fall off. I say unlikely because he's grabbing on to my pelt so hard that any more and I'd start to feel pain, which is saying something considering there are barely any nerves there.

Both me and Latias are invisible to avoid detection, but Cubone is small enough for no one on the ground to notice him, but as we're a thousand feet in the air, there's no one close by so chance of someone spotting him ranges from slim to nill. I decided that I would be the one to carry him because; 1) I don't want him getting to close to Latias. 2) I don't want Latias getting to close to him, and 3) I want to show off. I suppose Cubone is holding so tightly because if he lets go he won't be able to see where to put his paw back.

"What?" I ask him, once he's no longer shouting so loudly he won't hear me. "You want me to try a loop-de-loop?" I tease. He thinks I'm serious, which I'm not, the g-force could possibly kill him. "NO WAY. WHERE'S LATIAS? I DON'T WANNA RIDE ON YOU ANY MORE!". Below, I can hear Latias chuckling, which gives me an idea. "Sorry, " I apologize. "do you want to get off?" I enquire, becoming visible for the sake of it. Cubone stops shouting and sounds a lot calmer, speaking with a surprised tone and presumably looking down at my head, as his voice sounds clearer. "Really?". He lessons his grip on my scruff slightly.

"Yep!" I reply, and stop. Not slow down to a swift and gentle stop. Stop. Halt. Go from 100mph to Zero in less than half a second. Whatever way you put it, whilst I'm no longer moving, Cubone could not keep ahold of my neck and continues flying forward at the speed I gave him. He shoots forwards reletive to my now-stationary view, but also starts heading downwards as gravity takes toll. When his brain catches us with his departure from my back, the most guttural scream eruots from his throat. It seems a bit overkill, though I suppose if I couldn't fly I'd be scared to find I suddenly found myself falling towards the earth at a possibly leathal terminal velocity too.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAA!"

As expected, Latias hears his yelling and looks up, still invisible to Cubone. She takes a few nanoseconds to realize that Cubone is no longer attached to me and is falling, then adjusts her speed slightly slower to make sure he'll lands on her back, as I knew she would. Cubone is unaware if this and is still screaming the same scream without any intention of stopping until he thinks he's going to hit the ground.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaah? oh? what? What have I hit? Soft? Not falling?" is the sound track for the next few seconds.

Cubone is now sat quite calmly (in comparison) on Latias back, legs splayed out, sat on his rear, both hands in his lap with one clutiching the ever-present bone, his face looking utterly bewildered through that skull. He doesn't know that he's landed on Latias, even though it's the most obvious explanation. Then again, he's only just met us today send proberbly not used to the whole concept of being invisible but still physically there.

Latias clears up Cubone's confusion by becoming visible for a few seconds. The visible shift is accompanied by a slight shimmer that doesn't normally happen when I change from visible to invisible, but is quite common with Latias. The invisibility is caused by altering the arrangement of our feathers: while the front of them are red\blue and white, the side that is normally towards the body when we're visible has properties similar to that of the new 'fibre optic' cables that alto mare is starting to adapt, in that once light enters it through the feather ends it won't leave until it reaches the other end. So by arranging the feathers in a very complex way, we can make the light hit the feather ends and redirect around our bodies from all angles, effectively making us invisible. The shimmer I just say with Latias is due to the fact that she's excited and not properly concentrating on where she's directing the feathers.

"Hi Cubone!" She says and turns her head to look at her newly acquired passenger. Said passenger jolts slightly as the legendary Pokemon suddenly appears beneath him. "Ah! Latias!". He relaxes after a second and reaches forward, grabbing ahold of her scruff in an effort to stay upright. Latias giggles and accelerates forward, nowhere nearly as harshly as me. This series of interactions makes me feel a blast of 'something'. Anger? No, though I am concerned. So it could be a blast of concern. Latias or Cubone better not get any ideas.

Why am I worrying about that? They are in two completely separate leagues, never mind species. Then again, does the fact I'm considering it mean that it is a possibility? I wouldn't think it otherwise, surely? The same thoughts must be occurring to Latias... This is too confusing to think of in mid air, and we're reaching the garden now anyway.

Latis must have spotted where in the garden we're going to 'land', because she start a typical helter-skelter decent into the garden. I follow her exact track behind her, enjoying the slipstream that is easier to push through than normal air. I'm behind Latias and Cubone, and she's taking a very wide arc round in the circular decent, and very slow. I realize it's because she's making sure Cubone doesn't fall off. Fair enough.

I look down to the site we'll end up at at this rate. Latias is putting us down in the clearing that we had the picnic and painted the banner in yesterday. The banner is still there, easily legible from this height. To me at any rate.

We're still spiraling down, a maneuver which would be fun at high speed or a tighter circle but when done at this pace is just plain arduous. I look forward to Cubone who is looking below us in awe. I suppose he's never seen things from this height before. But ARCEUS this is boring! To prevent my highly evolved cranium from shrivelling up into a pool of pink mush at the corner of my skull out of sheer inactivity, I decide to liven things up. Dive bombing towards the ground at Mach 1 aught to do it.

I become visible and fly up next to Latias and nod at Cubone. "Hey, Cuboid" - I came up with that nickname on the spot and I must say I'm impressed. Cubone just frowns - " Sorry, Cubone. Watch this." And with that I depart upwards, hearing just about hearing Latias groan. "Oh great. Bet you he does the sound thing. Cover your ears". Am I really that predictable? I make a mental note to be less repetitive with my tricks from now on. For now though, I fly up to our origional height, about 1000ft. Latias and Cubone are still slowly circling downwards, about 500ft to the ground. Plenty of room to accelerate. Deceleration will be a bit tricky, but what's the fun if there's no risk?

I do a half backflip so that I'm facing the ground, then use gravity to help me accelerate. Very soon the air colliding so hard with my snout I can tell the sound barrier is under a few miles per hour away. At this speed, about 100ft, or less than half a second, which is also where the centre of Latias' turn is. Cubone is looking up at me, not covering his ears, clearly sceptical of the noise that me breaking the sound barrier will generate. I briefly consider if it'll deafen him, but decieenit won't as he's part fighting type and they generally have very thick ear drums. The skull helmit may also act as ear muffs.

It's a good job, because as I get level with him, the sound barrier cracks like a very loud cube of glass constructed solely of raw bass. I outpace the resulting thunder the second I generate it, but I can still hear the noise of the sound I'm catching up with, the result being a deafening boom in my ears. I have already lowered them against my head, but it's still noisy. As a result if this and the fact that I'm travelling faster than it, Cubones verbal response is lost to me. It proberbly swearing anyway, though he looks so innocent I don't think he knows any.

At any rate, the ground is getting alarmingly close. Slowing down, I have decided, will not be enough. I'll have to scoop around and loop de loop to avoid colliding with the nicely painted banner laid out on the grass below. I start to rapidly break and adjust my wings slightly at the same time, meaning I start to swoop backwards and slow down at the same time. I need to finish the turn before I enter the tree line, otherwise I could fly into a tree, which at this speed would hurt a lot.

I adjust the angle of my wings a bit more and the turn becomes tighter, but I'm still going a bit too fast. I splay out my rear fins and slow down even more. I add a burst of psychic and just like that I reach the bottom of the turn, my underside a few feet above the branches. I pull upwards, a much easier operation as I'm no longer fighting the speed I was travelling at, and end up facing the sky, in the opposite direction to gravity. Cubone and Latias are a lot lower down than they were, they're at about 300ft. As she's directly above me, I can't see Cubone or his reaction.

I turn backwards following the curve of the initial swoop and I'm soon upside down, having a rotated view of the tree tops. 90 degrees more and I'm facing the ground. I head off towards the clearing with the banner, reaching the clearing and doing a tight turn so that I'm horizontal to the ground, arriving half a minute before Latias helter-skelters down to me with Cubone on her back, staying horizontal for the sake of not tipping Cubone onto the ground. She's floating at about human head height, the same as me, and she flies around so we're both looking at each other. Latias speaks first. "Well, Bianca SAID she'd set some tasks for us, but since she's not here and not left a note I guess we can do whatever we want!"

I see where this is going. "Let me guess... Do you want to play a game with Cubone?". "YEAH!" she squeals, despite the fact I'm barely a foot away from her. Cubone pipes up. "Okay, but what? And who's Bianca?".

I give him a quick recap of the story so fa while I presume Latias thinks of a game. "I might as well tell you everything about the situation with us now so you don't keep having to ask questions. Okay?" Cubone nods on top of Latias who is getting quite fidgety.

"Good. So. Bianca is the daughter of Lorenzo, who owns the house attached to this garden, where we live. Bianca and Lorenzo are really friendly and we're allowed in the house and can watch TV and stuff with them. Bianca likes painting and is teaching Latias - Who can also shape shift to look like Bianca - how to paint as well. Lorenzo used to be a tour guide at the main museum but yesterday got a job as a TV presenter and so we're holding a surprise party tomorrow for him, which is why we were at the ice cream shop, who's owner I saved the life of and has promised to keep our existence secret. Oh, yeah. We're making sure the only people who know we exist are one's that we can trust not to tell anyone else, since we want to avoid being captured. Okay?"

This onslaught of information was delivered very rapidly, so I'm surprised when he just gives a slightly unsure "Okay" and nods his head. Meanwhile, Latias had decided upon a game and is doing the thing she does when she has something to say - moving her head round in a circle - to get our attention. I look at her and she tells me what game she wants to play

"Capture the Cubone!" she proudly announces. It's not a game I've heard off, though it sounds a hit like capture the flag, but with Cubone. I'm genuinely interested to see how this will work, so I'm glad when Cubone asks what the game entitles. "That sounds... Interesting. But what is is?" he asks as he gets up and jumps off Latias' back and onto the grass some 6ft below. He must have strong knees as he only grunts slightly as he lands on the ground.

Out of politeness, me and Latias both lower ourselves so we're only a foot off the ground and rotate to face Cubone. Latias starts explaining.

"Okay, So. We own have our own 'base' at the corners of the garden, the same distanc from each other. Cubone starts at the centre of the garden and tries to get to his base, whilst we try to find him and take him to our base. Cubone has to resist and get back to his base, and the pokemon that doesn't have him has to try and steal him and take him to their base." Latias is wearing a proud face, clearly pleased about thinking up this game. Cubone looks sceptical, but voices his opinion "I think we'll understand better if we actually play it". I think it's an interesting game, if not somewhat biased against Cubone. I raise an issue. "Lets play that then, in one condition. Only Cubone is allowed to use attacks". I don't want anyone accidentally injuring him. Latias gives a counter proposal. "We're allowed to use tackle and other basic ones?". I suppose the basic attacks won't do too much damage to Cubone. I nod and we set about planning the bases

The garden has 4 walls that are standard for Alto Mare: White bricks set in mortar. We don't know what the garden was or why it was built because we've not let anyone inside to inspect it for obvious reasons. Lining the walls are various features, drinking fountains, statues, that kind of thing. In addition, there are bells set in the walls at even intervals: you can ring them by pulling on the string underneath them. So I have the idea that we can set our bases under them and ring them when either one of us returns to our base, winning the game. They go around the entire perimeter, so the bases can be on opposite walls and still be near a bell. "How about we put the bases on the garden walls, at the center of them where the center bell is?" I ask. Latias thinks for a bit before realizing what I'm going on about and suddenly shouts out. "BAGSIE THE BACK WALL!"

I don't really care about her having the base on the back wall, I don't see any special reason for it, so I let her have it. "I'll take the one on the left as your looking away from the house" I say. Cubone is left with the right wall, he cant have the other remaining side because the archway is there. He doesn't know his way around the garden but he senses that this wall has a disadvantage because neither of us two chose it. It doesn't, but he doesn't know that. "Whats up with the right wall? Why didn't either one of you choose it?"

"No reason." Latias says and swoops down grabbing him under the arms in the process, presumably to show him here his base is. Cubone wasnt expecting it and promptly cries out when she does. "AHH! What are you doing!?". Latias is quick to respond as she carries him in her arms and starts flying towards the edge of the garden through the trees, just below branch-level. Its not particularly high-speed but Cubone is clearly spooked. "I'm showing you your base". I fly after them, easily navigating the various turns and twists I have to make in order to fit between the trees that the smaller Latias doesn't have to do anything to avoid. Cubone is clearly quite concerned for his own safety. "Watch out for that... Ah! Careful! Slow Down! I'm slipping! You have bony elbows!". Says the Cubone... A Pokemon famous for carrying around bones. In comparison, Latias is positively fluffy.

They arrive at the wall in the center of the garden and Cubone immediately struggles to be freed until Latias drops him. "This is your base. Remember how you got here?" I ask. Unlike us, Cubone has no internal compass and no knowledge about the garden, so he unsurprisingly resounds with a resounding "No". I continue, ignoring this response. He'll learn the garden's layout in due course. "Good. Right, If you get here, ring this bell " - I draw out an arm and point to the bell set into the wall - " to show that the game is over and that you've won. We'll do the same If we arrive at our bases with you and that way everyone knows that the game is over" Latias smiles at me, as I fold my arm back in, clearly happy that I'm interested enough in the game to consider adding an extra thing.

Cubone looks up at the bell. Its a dark brass thing that looks like its seen many years of absolutely nothing but the occasional bad weather. It should be shiny but its all brown. Its a tinny thing, about 10cm tall and 5 across at the base, where a rope emerges. Its attached to a brace which is in turn set into the wall. It looks too high for him to reach. Cubone sees this issue and stands under it facing the wall, waving his bone above his head in an attempt to reach the rope, but its futile. He's way too small. "Ah." Me and Latias both sound, clearly not having thought of that issue. Cubone looks around at us through that skull mask before stepping back a few paces. "No Problem!" he says, before - Unexpectedly to me and Latias - jumping to about twice his height and swinging the bone round so it hits the bell square on (Like me in the ice cube), producing a much louder ringing noise than expected.

That done, Latias yet again picks Cubone up - though with less of a struggle this time - and we fly through to the front of the garden when the ponds and archway are. Presumably she plans on starting the game here. She sets Cubone down on the stone tiles and he wobbles a bit before maintaining his balance and looking up at both of us. "Okay, So now what?" He asks at Latias. Her answer is simple.

"Now, Cubone, You Run. We'll wait here and count to 60, then we'll try and find you and take you to our base. Like Hide-and-Seek. With more fighting."

With that, she sets herself on the ground wings splayed out,facing away from the garden and starts counting, head facing the ground. I look back at Cubone who is leveling the bone at me. "You Too". A bit arrogant, him bossing me around when its my garden. I let it slide and imitate Latias, lying round and resting on the ground with my face facing the ground and with my eyes closed.

The next 60 seconds are composed only of sound. The sound of my breathing. The sound of the voice in my head counting down. 55. I can also hear Latias breathing. 51. Cubone's footsteps, getting quieter and quieter, then the tone changing as they stop being on stone and start going on grass. 40. Sixty certainly feels like a long time. Latias speaks up. "30". Clearly her version of a second is shorter, but I'm not going to complain. Counting from 30 now, I reach 23. Where will Cubone have gone? To his base, obviously. 17. But how? 15. Should I fly up above the trees and track him from the air or go along the ground? 9. No time to think of pros and cons. 4. Latias will be looking for him. Priority 1: Disable her. I open my eyes.

"READY OR NOT! HERE I COME!" She squeals and we both rise from the ground and turn to face the trees. Shes expecting me to fly after Cubone, So I do the exact opposite of that. Just as shes about to jet off towards the trees, I fly towards her and effectively tackle her into the pond at her side. My left wing makes contact with her body and I note that her friends are right: She is quite fluffy. At any rate, she wasn't concentrating on levitating enough and she goes down like a sack of potatoes as she stops concentrating altogether. Clearly she wasn't expecting me to do that. She falls into the water with an "What theaaaaaaa-" SPLASH.

Taking advantage of the time it will take Latias to re-organize herself, I set off towards the trees. I head off right, towards Cubone's base where he will be headed. I go as fast as I can without colliding with a tree, which is still easily quadruple the speed Cubone does. Theoretically, I should reach him in a quarter of the time we waited, but since I cant do one quarter of sixty I decide that If I don't come across him in 20 seconds I'll look elsewhere. That way, I'll cover the most gro-

**"HEEEEEEEEYYYYYY AHHHHHHHH!"**

Something collides with the top of my tail feathers, causing a small amount of pain, before rolling off and thudding into the ground. It can only be Cubone. I turn around and sure enough he's there. Clearly he had decided that he couldn't out run us and so instead was simply planning on ambushing and disabling us before running to his own base. By the looks of it he'd climbed a tree and planned on dropping onto my head, but dropped to late and collided with my tail fins instead and since rolled off. He's in a fighting stance and looks really quite pathetic in comparison to me. I mean, He cant even rea-

For the second time, I underestimate him. He's run up and jumped at my face, before bringing the bone round in his face and slamming it into the left side of my head, making that ear ring and temporally making me loose my sense of balance and me suddenly feel incredibly dizzy.

Balancing is VERY important when you're flying with psychic. So as a result of this temporary loss I fall to the ground, though not as hard as I might have as I was still holding my weight with my psychic, just in an unbalanced way. My main body hits the ground a second before my head, which I stop from hitting the ground painfully by raising it with my neck. I see a sideways view of Cubone, who looks like he's smirking through the bone-mask. Time for a delay tactic.

"I underestimated you" I say, trying to sound wise. So long as it distracts Cubone from moving away until I stop being so dizzy, I don't care what it sounds like. Cubone takes the bait. "What? You thought I was going to try and run like a fool? Nah. I knew you were too fast for me to outrun, so I planned this ambush. You'd never expect that". He grins afterwards. "Anyway, My base is over there so I'll just be off. See you later!". I plan on surprising him, so I cheerily say "Bye!" like I'm defeated for good. He walks around me taking no caution whatsoever and carries on behind me. By this time I'm stable enough to fly, so after a few more seconds I silently rise from the ground before rotating and seeing Cubone walk between two trees. I can easily get to him without him hearing anything, so I start off, raising up my wings so as to fit through the trees. I get to within a meter of Cubone when suddenly a Red streak zipps past my view from right to left and just like that Cubone is gone, whipped out of my sight by said red streak.

Latias.

Dammit.

* * *

To those who have watched The Dark Knight, I present this:  
"No one cared who I was, until I put on this skull" - Cubane. (Geddit? Cubone? Bane? Cu-Bane?). Sorry. Had to be done.

Sorry people for that somewhat weak chapter, a lot of stuff has been going on while I sort out the exact plans for my apprenticeship ("WHOOOOTTT YEAH!" - The Moderator) and I've had trouble concentrating. Itstarts tomorrow, but after the first week its a series of one and a half hour commutes, so I'll still have plenty of time to write chapters!

As Always: Thanks for reading, Do Read And Review.


	15. Chapter 15: Supplies!

All your reviews are ACE, But I just want to respond to; The Silent Insomniac: Dream is the nice word. It was more of a hallucination, and the bits I've written down are just the ones that made sense. There is also quite a lot of lying in a hospital bed with a bunch of creepy monsters and unable to move. Don't be jealous is what I'm trying to say.

Sorry for the delay in posting, it's proberbly going to be a week between chapters from now on as I've started my apprenticeship propper now, and a 5AM start is really taking its toll...

* * *

**Chapter 15: Supplies!**

The red swoop is out of my eyesight so quick it takes me a second to realize what happened. Latias must have recovered from her dip and waited to ambush cubone up ahead. When she saw him all she'd have to do is fly low to the ground with her arms out and effectively pick him up like a forklift truck. While he's feeling confident about beating me and thus letting his guard down.

All in all, Very clever. For Latias.

Which almost guarantees the fact she'll now do something stupid. I rise up from the ground and consider what I would do if I was her. Of course, I'd try and get Cubone to my base as soon as possible before he could escape. Using speed more than restraint. So I should get to her base before her then surprise her while she thinks she's about to win, making her prioritize fighting me, henceforth releasing Cubone at which point I go after him while he is - theoretically - running away to his base and not prioritizing his defense. Easy.

Even as this goes through my mind I'm monitoring the current conditions. I'll definitely beat her going over the tree tops, so I do that. I fly directly upwards, back first (Not rotating so I face upwards, Just rising up whilst horizontal). My wings brush aside a few branches as I subconsciously rotate in the direction of Latias' intended destination. The moment I'm clear I streamline my wings and set off as fast as reasonably possible, which is still quite a lot faster than your average Formula 1 Racing Car.

That said, I reach the bell at her base in under 30 seconds. (AN: Sorry. It's 23:21 and my train has just gone right through my station without stopping. I'd like to dedicate this o-bitch-uary to East Midlands Trains. You guys suck.). Latias is nowhere to be seen. I briefly consider the fact that Cubone might have escaped, when my ears pick something up. It is unmistakably the sound of Latias flying with a struggling Cubone. It goes something like: "Stop. Stop. STOP HITTING ME WITH THAT BONE. Your stuck and struggling isn- OW! STOP IT!"

I reflect on the fact that Latias would make a terrible kidnapper.

Anyway, she's getting closer and I realize a flaw with my plan. To surprise her I have to hide. To hide I have to blend in with the surroundings. This may be somewhat difficult when you consider that I'm a big blue blob in comparison to the green surroundings. Latias' voice gets louder and I can hear cubone mumbling. Think. Think. Hide. Being invisible would really be useful now.

What I think catches up with basic logic. Duh! of COURSE I can become invisible. Isn't it what I spent this entire morning being? Feeling a bit stupid and glad Latias wasn't reading my thoughts, I ruffle my feathers into their instinctive pattern that makes them redirect light around me, and just like that I disappear from sight. So long as Latias isn't concentrating on aura, she'll never know I'm here. Which is almost a certainly. I set my eyes to the trees where I can hear Latias and her captive.

I see a fliker of red between the tree trunks. It must be her. The flicker reappears and disappears again as she zigzags her way around the trunks, getting more and more frequent as she gets closer. There are shorter routes around the randomly placed trees, but thinking that shows you don't Latias well enough to know she'll not do the rational or most efficient/sensible thing.

Suddenly, she zooms into view, with Cubone suspended a few centimeters above the ground in the crook of her arm. His feet are peddling in the air but it's no use, he's not going anywhere Latias isn't. He's trying to make her let go by flicking his wrist and making th bone hit her in the bump where the arm meets the body, and though she does flinch it's not enough to make her let go.

I float up vertical and put my wings out wide and my head low, making the chance of her flying past me as small as possible. I'm between her and the bell, so I see the delight on her face when she sees it. Just as planned, she begins gloating before she has actually won. "Ha! See! You Lost! and its not even be- OOOOOF!"

The 'ooof' was the sound of her running right into the triangle on my chest, which she bounces off like a fly. That in itself should have been surprising enough for her to drop him, even be stunned due to the impact directly on her snout but she doesn't/isn't. I turn visible instantly and she blinks but keeps Cubone locked in her arms, still waving the bone around and making Latias more and more irritated. "Hi Bro!" she says in a typical 'I'm innocent of everything, everything is fine' kind of way. This means everything is the exact opposite of okay. If I was her, I'd attack me, so I get ready to dodge whatever she does. It can't involve her arms, so it's going to be a beam or psychic attack, which she can do with her mouth or thoughts. She's got no sense of variation, so I bet it's an ice beam.

I think this as Latias starts her attack, speding very little time charging it in order to surprise me. Which it doesn't as I'm one step ahead of her. As she fires it I've already dodged below her. The ice beam is being fired from her mouth so she can't fully see where she's aiming as I'm so close and she has to go buzz-eyed to focus right. The result is her not moving fast enough to focus the beam on me before I've dived down and back up again, delivering a headbutt into her neck - Not her chest as Cubone was in the way and her wings would you flex out if the way.

As kind-of planned, she flips backwards and the beam flies high, drawing a line of ice up the wall, around the bell, up the wall some more, before it reaches sky, then the tree line and freezes most of the leaves off said tree. More importantly, she releases Cubone, who runs off, exactly to plan. He runs with his stubby little legs in the exact opposite off towards his base. I'm just about to give chase when Latias lets off a deafening screeching noise. I presume it's an underpowered screech attack, because while I feel slightly disorientated and consequently slow down a bit, it's nothing major enough to make me fall over. Latias clearly thought it would have more of an effect than that and I assume she's compleated her flip and is heading my way. I can't out-maneuver her here: I'm bigger than her and she could take short cuts through narrow trees that I couldn't.

That said, I go for raw speed to try and beat her, which seems like a good plan until I feel a charge beam hit my tail feather. And when I say 'feel' I mean it in a bad way. Charge beam is an attack that relies on the enemy being grounded, which I'm not as per the rules of levitating. However, charge beam is special in the fact that it transfers an amazing amount of volts into the defending pokemon. Normally this goes straight to the ground, but since I'm flying that charge is stored on me due to charge beam's nature. Either way, such a large energy transfer hurts even when you're not grounded.

I wobble around in the air and almost fly into a tree, but manage to avoid it and see Cubone running up ahead, no more than 10ft away. The fact that Latias attacked me ment she was too far away to consider reaching me and so she won't be an issue for now. I close in on Cubone who is still running quite quickly, but not quickly enough. I'm just within arm reach of him and folding out my claws when I realize that making contact with Cubone will electrically ground me via him, shocking him in the process. Whether this constitutes to an attack I don't know, and besides, it's a lot of charge and I don't want to hurt the poor guy. So I have to get rid of this charge before I can catch him. Said pokemon is running away and unaware of my exact presence behind him.

Ideally I'd off lay the charge to Latias while she's connected to the ground, since I don't want to feel the shock. So perhaps doing an Arial Ace would make me contact her and then ram her into the ground. Is this too harsh? No, she started it. Successfully justified, I fly upwards and out of the trees, dodging every leaf in the process to avoid discharging the electrical energy that is crackling around my body starting to make my feathers rise.

Normally an Arial Ace would be done with the take off started with the enemy in sight, but since by then it will be too late and she'll sus me out, I make do with finding the target when I'm at the apogie of the flight. I reach said appogie and look down. Cubone has reached the clear area with the banner and is still running. His stamina really is impressive, when you consider his background. The fact he's in the clearing is good, there's no trees or their associated leaves for me to hit and discharge to on the way down. The tricky bit will be starting the dive for the attack at the right time so I reach her when she's in the clearing, a time slot that with her speed will be anything from 3 to 1 second, starting at an unknown time. To facilitate finding her, I rotate round in the air so my snout is facing towards the ground, but I'm staying at the same altitude. The blood rushes to my head, as it normally would be pushed back by gforce in this flying orientation. I concentrate and look down for Latias. She's red, so how hard can it be to spot a red dragon underneath green leaves? Easy, as it turns out. I spot her heading towards the clearing as Cubone is just about to leave. She's going to catch up with him at the edge of it in about 5 seconds, so I aim for there and that time. It's a relatively slow decent to start off with, but Arial Ace's secret wepon is that you speed up in the last second.

Latias enters the clearing as I start to speed up.

It looks like none of them have seen me and I'm almost certain this attack is going to hit, when Latias stops in mid flight and looks to the right. Cubone does the same. They both look like a herd of skitty who've just spotted a laser pointer. Actually, that's not quite right, because skitty tend to go into an attack mode, and that's not what Latias has done. She's considerably more relaxed and I'd say that she was smiling if it wasn't for the fact her mouth is on the bottom of her head and is obstructed from my view.

At any rate, this is an excellent distraction. I adjust my wings slightly and for a few milliseconds and almost immediately I'm on course to hit the centre of her back. Next up is to lower my head so I don't hit her with my snout. lowering my head means that I'll hit her with the bridge of bone that stretches between the eyes, which is perfect for headbutting stuff. Finally, I brace my neck and wings even more than they already are, locking them into position, meaning the maximum amount of momentum will be transferred to her.

I'll collide with her in about half a second and reflect on the fact that this isn't the best Arial Ace I've ever done. It'll hit her at an angle due to the last minute course correction, and my head isn't low enough to correct for that. Not that any of that matters now, because One moment I'm 20ft away, and the next I've pile-drivered her into the ground.

The collision is a two part thing. Part 1, the electricity travelling across to her. The instant my forehead makes contact with her, static fills the air as millions of electrons flow into her body, making a crackling sound that is barely audible of Latias' cry of suprise. That part in itself is painful for her, and her body buckles in the middle while her wing tips and head stay in the same place, not dragged down as her muscles weren't tensed.

Part two: Her body touches the ground. The volts we were sharing between us find a way to escape to the ground, all through the patch of skin no bigger than a millimeter that Latias has touching the ground. The electricity flows every whichway possible to reach that point, through skin, feathers and nerves. This has the side effect of making all of her muscles lock up, as well was being extraordinarily painful. I note that the electricity was origionally hers and the irony that this attack was effectively self inflicted as her wings fly down to the ground and her neck flies back and she screams in the pain of a few thousand volts. After that performance she slumps on the ground, presumably for a nap. I wouldn't say she's technically fainted as her aura isn't in that state. It's more of a 'I don't want to play this game any more'.

Either way, cubone is now defenseless, and I'm about to rear up off the ground and fly after him when I'm interrupted.

"LATIOS, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLAYING AT?" screams Bianca, as she storms towards me with her arm raised as she normally does when she's about to hit me. She must be angry. I can't really avoid her as she's my carer so it's easier just to accept and tolerate punishment, and I prepare to do so, lowering my body to a height she can reach and pointing my snout towards her, before screwing my eyes shut. Pain is less painful if you don't know it's coming.

Oddly though, instead of feeling the sting of a human hand on my snout, nothing happens. Instead, I hear Cubone now in front of me, defiantly saying "No", which sounds more like "Cue" to bianca. Even though she surely can't understand that, I still don't feel her hit me.

I crank open an eye and the first thing I see is bianca, arm still raised but no longer locked in position. She's about one and a half feet away and looks like something's blocking her access to me. I look down with my neck and see Cubone, in a fighting stance with the bone leveled at Bianca, stopping her from punishing me without her herself getting punished by Cubone.

Now, this is complicated for me to respond to. On one hand, Bianca is under threat, and instinct is telling me to remove that threat, AKA Cubone. On the other hand, I like Cubone and do not want to hurt him. At the same time, Bianca still needs to punish me.

"It's alright Cubone. Let her past" I say to him in as calm a tone as possible. "No. She's threatening you and possibly Latias. I'm not going to let her do that." he says, still facing Bianca as he tenses himself ready for what I presume is an attack. Bianca is looking at the both of us, like she's trying to figure out the conversation. I need to stop Cubone from harming Bianca, priority one. I don't think I've introduced him, which may be why he's about to attack her.

"Cubone. That's my carer, Bianca. She's allowed to discipline me or Latias for whatever reason" I say back to him, producing a visible change in his behaviour. He relaxes and turns around to face me. "Oh. Okay... If your sure..." he says as he steps to the side, looking back at Bianca, who looks incredibly intreugied by our conversation. She remains still and I realize I have to nod at her to let her know Cubone has stood down. I do and she steps forward, lowering her hand and posing a question. "Care to explain what he is and what he is doing here, and why you attacked your sister for no reason while she was playing with him?" It's a tired tone that suggests she's not up to arguing with me. But just as I'm about to open my mouth, she interrupts. "Don't give me the whole 'She's my sister, she's too young for that kind of thing, I was protecting her'" - she does that last bit in a really quite terrible impersonation of my Lati voice which leads me to believe it may be sarcastic - " because they were just playing, and besides, he's completely the wrong species. Even I can tell that." The end trails off like she's expecting me to interrupt, which of course I don't as she wouldn't understand me. This is going to require some miming. I fly down to Cubone before pulling a few rapid and intricate circles around him, mimicing the kind of thing Latias does when she's in a playful mood or wants to play. Bianca has to step back a bit when I do because she's quite close to Cubone.

I finish the 5 second performance and look at her face, whilst hovering above Cubone. She looks less angry, but still unsure about the origin of my actions: Quite a lot of mine and Latias' games involve violence in the same way that all young male humans seem to want to do is play-fight with each other. The pokemon version is a tad more extreme. Bianca takes two steps towards Cubone whilst looking at him, making me back off to allow her to go near him. Once she gets within his bone-range she stops and kneels down on her haunches. Cubone is stood and looking quite weary, but relaxed: the bone is at his side and he's moved his legs out of a fighting stance and closer together.

"So, what's your name little guy?" She asks Cubone in a much sweeter voice. I swear Cubone will be blushing inside that mask, and as I move back behind him to see his reaction I notice he's moved the bone behind his back and is looking slightly to the right of Bianca. It looks cute and respectful at the same time.

"Cubone" he says to her, which sounds exactly the same as it does to Bianca as it does to me - as Cubones are like most pokemon in that they are named after their species dialect's core sound. Bianca streightens her beret and continues. "So, Cubone, do you want me to call you that?" She asks him. "You can nod or shake your head like Latios" She advises, assuming he's wild and not lived with humans before. Cubone nods his head. Bianca continues in her measured tone. "Cool. Tell me, Was Latios playing with you just now?" She asks.

I barely have time to panic before Cubone nods his head again. "So you and him are friends?". Another nod, this one especially nice as its accompanied with a "YES" which shows he values me as a friend.

"Ah right. And that attack was part of the game?" Cubone nods his head again as a murmur sparks up from Latias who is still on the ground but now raising her head. "Mmmuh wah to play again" Latias appears to have uttered.

Bianca gets up and takes a few steps over to Latias before kneeling back down and stroking her ears. "Latias, you okay?". Latias - of course - is fine and at this slightest hint of concern from Bianca flies up - almost shocking Bianca in here face with her head - and does some pretty patterns in the air, while squealing "I'M FINE! I'M FINE! I'M FINE!" which to Bianca proberbly sounds playful but to me sounds like someone who has just escaped from a lunatic asylum.

Bianca gets up yet again and steps backwards, looking at the three of us. Latias calms down and flies across so she's the same height and orientation as me, floating 5ft of the ground, horizontally at Bianca. Cubone is to my left and Latias is at my right. Bianca addresses us. "Is the cute one" she points at Cubone "staying with us?". I look down at him and he looks slightly worried, but there's no need because, without a shadow of doubt, Latias swoops down and picks him up in her arms, before flying over to Bianca and presenting him as she floats vertically a few centimeters from her face.

"YES! HE'S STAYING! SOOOO CUTE!". Refer yourselves to the comment about a lunatic asylum again. Bianca nods and smiles a bit more. "Okay, but what about you, Cubone?" she leans down to addres only him. "Do you want to stay?". Cubones response is unexpected as I fly around for a closer look.

He grabs hold of Bianca's neck with both arms around her and briefly I'm concerned for her safety, but then I realize he's giving her a hug. The bone is acting as an extension of his arm as his arms aren't big enough to actually breach to gap between them and around Bianca's neck. She flinched at first, as surprised as I am. Cubone is nodding his head, and saying "Your really kind! Yes I want to stay!". That happens for about 3 seconds, after which he lets go and nods. All Bianca has to say on the matter is "Awwww... You're really soft. You're staying."

Latias flies back to avoid hitting Bianca with Cubone before swinging him up and around in the air. "YEAH!" She squeals as me and Bianca look on in bemusement. "Wow, that is one happy dragon" Bianca observes in a passive voice. I nod and she turns to me, the commotion between Latias and Cubone still happening in the background. "I'm sorry I threatened to hit you earlier, you'd surprised me was all..." I fly up so we're face to face and float vertical in order to look more friendly. I nod whilst doing that, accepting her apology. "Thanks... Hug?". Awww. How sweet. No harm in a hug from time to time, and if it will make her feel better...

I nod my head and she steps forwards and puts her arms around my neck, squeezing not to tight. I'd do the same but for the fact that my arms are too short and too far away. I never got the appeal of hugs to be fair, but if it gives her a good feeling I'm not going to complain.

Whatever good feeling it is, it's just been ruiend by sir ignorant who is lurking under the trees behind Bianca.

"Oi! Dragon Boy. Get your paws off my girlfriend and help me carry the shopping!" shouts Jay, effectively ruiening the moment. Bianca lets go and I fly horizontally right up to Jay's face, giving him the mother of all death glares. "YOU keep YOUR paws off MY sister" I growl at him. I'm still not happy about his relationship with my sister.

He doesn't seem to get the integrity of my glare or my words and instead is looking at Cubone and Latias. "Oh cool, a Cubone!" he shouts in my ear and he runs off to argue with Latias over who gets to hold him.

He's dropped two pokemart bags when he's rushed over to Cubone, and judging from the smell coming off them they contain cheese, bread and some kind of butter. Obviously, this won't be enough and he wants me to fetch it out her for him. The rest has proberbly been dumped in the kitchen, the lazy excuse for a mammal.

Bianca shouts over to me. "Latios! pokemart bags in the kitchen! Could you bring them and the folding tables out here please?" Finally, someone who's polite enough to ask and not demand like Jay. I nod to her and she turns back around to talk with Jay and Latias and Cubone. I fly away towards the house to fetch the stuff.

Of course, it makes sense that I should fetch the stuff. I'm certainly faster and I can easily carry the weight. But at the same time, I always carry their stuff around. And Bianca could have at least come along so I'd have someone to help put my arms through the bag handles. It's difficult on my own because the shielding on my arms is only a centimeter smaller than the bag handle.

While I'm lost in my own thoughts I'm also making my way to the house, a journey I'm so used to I do it without even thinking. As I whizz past the wind chimes and reach the archway, I think about Cubone. He'll be happy here, what with being with Latias and having a playmate. But from what I can remember, his life-span is bound to be a horrible lot less than what ours is. Same for Bianca. We've already had 4 generations of her family look after us, and we're still in the infancy part of our lifespan really. Not for the first time, I realize that we're going to have to watch both Cubone and Bianca go from being youngsters to old and frail, and then... then the next generation will have to look after us, with the two of them being nothing but a memory. I remember when Lorenzo was a young boy. He'd constantly want a piggy back, or show us off to the very few trusted friends he had, or try racing us around the garden. That all seems like only last week, even though it was 50 years ago. Now, that same person is the bald, fat, grandad who struggles to get up in the morning. I don't mean that nastily. But still...

Very morbid thoughts enter my head. I don't want to see any of them age any more. I think right now is the happiest moment, Bianca as a teenager, Latias as a carefree youngster, Lorenzo the father figure. I don't want to think about it, but I do. I don't want to see the day where he's strapped into a hospital bed and all a nurse can do is shake her head at Bianca, while a screen at the side will just give out a long, lonely beep. I'd be there to comfort here, but it wouldn't work because I'd be invisible and she wouldn't see me.

I've done that before, with Lorenzo's father. Worst day of my life...

To add to my woes, the back door is closed. I psychic the door handle down and towards me, opening the door. I'm so engrossed in my depressing thoughts that I yet again bang my wing tips on the door frame when I try to fly through. Ordinarily, it's a minor annoyance. But with my morbid thoughts in my head, it becomes some big deal and I shout at the door even though it's inanimate and can't hear me. "STUPID DOOR! BE WIDER!"

Even though the door doesn't understand my outburst, I feel briefly better until I fly through with my wings back and see what I'm wanted to carry. 5 bags of pokemart brand shopping bags plus a rack filled with 3 foldable tables. Not particularly heavy, but very akward shapes to carry.I resign myself to the fact that I'll have to psychic them the entire way and concentrate on the bags contents. They smell like a collection of real and artificial berry jams and spreads, different meats and post powerfully of all, fish. It's coming from the bag directly infront of me and I can't resist having a nosey around as to the fishes specific qualities.

I float so my head is over the top of the bag before lowering it so my nose is in the bag. I can now discern the smells of two types of fish; the pink one that we had yesterday and another that I've had before that as I remembered was white in color. The smell is quite intense so there must be a lot, because it's got to be vaccum packed and so the smell dulled.

Satisfied, I move my head back up, only to my distress the bag stays put on my head. It's made of plastic and as I breath in the bag cloggs my mouth, stopping the air from going in. This isn't a problem as I can go for 20 minutes without breathing, but it makes me panic all the same. I try to calm down and asses why the bag is still on my head.

There's a kind-of tugging sensation on both of my ears and I realize it must be the bag handles. They must have latched over my head and ears when I stuck my head in. I relax my ears and the bag falls back on the table with a flop.

Bag off my head, I begin the task of moving the bags psychicly out off the door onto the floor outside. Once their all outside, I can levitate them onto my back and only spend psychic power balancing them, not lifting them off the ground. I raise each bag with my mental power up and off the table top, before floating it through the door and out to the floor outside. Using the psychic is like... I can't explain what it's like, other than that I think something and it happens.

Soon, all the bags and chair racks are outside. I fly out and hover above them, folding my wings in and back out to flat again as I go through the door. I fly as horizontal as possible to make sure that the stuff doesn't slide off, before starting to psychic the rack of chairs onto my flat back. Once their on I float all of the bags on top of that, before stabilizing it on my back with my psychic.

The stabilizing process involves psychicly 'feeling' for the object your trying to balance before putting a grip on it. Its not as mentally intensive as psychicly lifting the entire thing, but it still takes effort. I manage though, and in a few seconds I'm on my way back to the clearing in the garden, albeit slower in order to stop the supplies slipping from my back - the psychic grip isnt perfect.

After a few worrying moments where I think the bags are going to slip off run back, I get the hang of it and eventually end up at the clearing with the banner, where Bianca is pointing various things out to Latias and Cubone.

"I got the stuff!" I shout as I enter the clearing, and Bianca turns around just in time to see me get tackled to the ground by some unknown screaming 'thing'

* * *

I needed a brief break from this story for some "HARDCORE MILITARY ACTION ADVENTURE" kinda thing. So I've released a sample chapter of my new story, "Hidden". I'm not doing any more of it until I finish this one, so don't panic. But if you like the idea of a bunch of ninja teens with legendary pokemon VS the hi-tech military with F16 fighter jets and a plausible plot based on real places and events to boot, check out and follow my latest story. *cheesy salesman grin*

Anyway, enough shameless self promotion, Read and Review!


	16. Chapter 16: Training

YAWN! From now on, I'm writing all my stories on the 6:27 East Midlands Train to London St Pancreas. I recon I'll get used to it, but sorry for any intermittent dullness issues. The brain does not work at full humor capacity when you've woken up at 5 AM and have to share an unheated train carriage with dull buisnessmen holding conference calls on their not-quite iPhones. Enough whinging, Time to see what attacked Latios...

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**Chapter 16: Training.**

"SUPR-"  
The screaming thing runs right into me, but instead of taking me down like it clearly expected, it bangs it's throat on my neck and collapses to the floor, no longer screaming and instead rolling on the floor, grabbing it's windpipe. I'm actively floating, meaning I'm fixing myself in this point in space relative to the ground, so it would have been almost impossible to take me down anyway. I was keeping my neck rigid just because, and as a result whatever attacked me just had the same effect as running into a fixed steal bar

Bianca shouts out when she hears the victim's scream suddenly stop. "OOOOH, CLOTHES-LINED! I told you that wasn't a good idea Jay".

I look down and lo-and-behold, the almighty idiot that is Jay Wills is rolling on the floor, having just failed to attack me. The fact that he tried to attack me is bad enough for me to want to hurt him, but Bianca is still watching and it needs to look like an accident...

I AM carrying quite a lot of heavy stuff on my back, and Jay could have upset my balance.

Without a second thought, I tilt my wings ever so slightly and release my psychic grip on the objects on my back, tipping 2 kilograms of groceries and foldable tables directly off my back and onto Jay, interrupting his sentence. "It's okay, sweety, I'm f-"

With a dull thud, the supplies fall on him from head height. Even Bianca thinks this is funny, and starts giggling. Clearly she finds the fact that I've just crushed her boyfriend amusing. For once. With the supplies now off my back, I fly over to Bianca and present my head next to her, and she knows what that means. She reaches behind my ear and gives it a scratch with her long fingernails. It's a spot I can't reach and it feels VERY nice. I coo a little and tilt my head, letting her know I appreciate my reward. As with all good things though, it doesn't last.

"Oi! Don't encourage him!" Jay shouts, from where I presume he is still on the floor. "Don't attack me in the first place!" I shout back, at the same time as Bianca. "I told you he doesn't like surprises. It's your own stupid fault" she says with a smile. I fly up and turn around to face him, and he's just picking himself out of the pile of shopping. Not pleased, he's mumbling but there's too much background noise to tell what. Bianca decides to change the situation by putting forward a suggestion we all enjoy.

"Well, The stuff is here, Latias says you've ordered the cake and I doubt it will take too long to put the food out. How about we do some training?" She suggests.

By training, she means anything to do with improving battle skills: Leaning new moves, Perfecting old ones, agility, sparing, that kind of thing. It's a bit of a laugh since we don't battle anyone other than the other sibling much anyways, but it's usefull anyways, and mostly fun.

Latias files around and around Bianca in various intricate patterns, cooing with agreement. Cubone is more hesitant, unsure about what 'training' entails. "What's 'training'? What do you do?" He asks anyone who's listening, only one of which can understand as Latias is otherwise engaged with harassing Bianca. "You know, Training." I tell him, receiving a blank look. I fly closer so he can hear me. "You don't have to do it, but me and Latias really enjoy it and it'd be interesting if you tagged along. You learn some attacks, do a bit of battling with each other, Do some agility training..." He looks more interested. "Battling? Not done it before myself but I'd sure like to try it!"

I'm surprised he hasn't battled before, as the moves he's used so far looked pretty well done. But I understand why he'd want to. A few years ago, some people wanted to ban battling on the grounds it was inhumane and damaging to pokemon. So some scientists did some research and spoke to the few pokemon that they could communicate with and came up with the theory that battling gave the same neural responses to pokemon as eating or other things that makes us happy. Of course, they couldn't fully understand it, so some people still oppose it, but the majority of people and pokemon accept that battling is a natural thing that pokemon are engineered to enjoy, and generally a fun and entertaining process for all involved. Especially the winner.

So with that done, Cubone walks up to Bianca - who is keeping very still to avoid a hyperactive Latias hitting her with a wing or fin - And tuggs at her leg. "Okay Latias I get the point" Bianca says as she dismisses Latias and tries to talk to Cubone. Once Latias has stopped circling her. She looks down at him, smiling. "You want to train too?" She asks, and he responds with a nod. She thinks for a second before carrying on, as we (Latias and Cubone) all line up in front of her, ready to receive instructions.

"Right. Lets give everyone a task... Fiiirrrst. isssss. Latios. She's " - Bianca points at Latias who grinns at me - " miles more agile than you. So we'll do some agility work with you". She smiles like it's not meant to be insulting, but it is. She should try being 'agile' been she's 2 meters long with huge wings. She carries on. "Latias, Ice Beam is going very well but you're over using it a bit. We'll work on a different attack. Perhaps try learning a new one?". Latias yet again squeals with delight and rubs her face against Bianca's in appreciation. She loves learning new stuff.

Bianca pushes Latias' snout away after a second and leans down to Cubone. "I think... We need to know what you can do first before we do anything else. I'll bring out some targets and you can attack them with all the attacks you know, then we'll see what to do from there. Understand?". Bianca clearly isn't 100% sure Cubone understands English, but he does and gives her a nod to indicate that.

Jay, meanwhile, has wandered on over, clearly quite interested in what's about to go down. Bianca turns to him. "Ahh good. Jay, you fetch the targets for Cubone and find out what attacks he knows. I'll set the other two on something then we'll swap. Okay?". Jay nods indifferently. On one hand, he's been given a remenial task. On the other hand, it's one that doesn't involve working with me, which means he's much less likely to get a Dragonbreath to the face.

For now.

Jay turns to Cubone and clapps like Cubone is a simpleton who needs a clap to let him know where to look. Once Cubone is focused, Jay walks over to a less crowded spot and becons Cubone to follow, which he does. I give Cubone 6 minutes of Jay before he gets fed up and headbuts him.

Back to me and Latias, the latter of which Bianca is addressing. "Okay then. So, Latias. Lets see... What kind of move do we want to learn..." It's not a question she wants Latias to answer. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone. On it is a standard pokedex, of which she opens up and views all the attacks that a Psychic and Dragon type pokemon may be able to learn. I watch her eyes as they scan through each line, looking at each attack and assessing it's difficulty and usefulness. She's not a trainer and so isn't entitled to the official pokedex device, so we rely on this to get all our information. "Right. Do you know... Fury Swipes?" she asks in an unsure tone, and she glances her eyes up. Latias nods her head and is about to give a demonstration when Bianca interrupts. "Ah! No need to show me. Lets see... What... Else...? Here we go! How about Energy Ball?"

Latias tilts her head, making her 'you what?' face. Bianca glances up and explains. "Energy Ball. Grass-slash-Special type move, though it's apparently in the Psychic Dragon moveset". Because a professor hasn't actually done any tests on us - we don't want them to -, there is no telling what attacks we can or can't do. All it has on pokedexes is a drawing of us and some assumed basic facts, most of which are a bit off. So we have to judge by the type set. "Says here it's almost impossible to miss when you use it. So we only have to train for power, not accuracy" Bianca continues.

That seals any deal for Latias. She nodds thoroughly at Bianca, who nods back in agreement. "Today then, Latias, we will be learning Energy Ball. I'll download the guide". Latias rolls forward and around in the air like she always does when she's exited about learning a new move. It looks like a continuous forward roll that isn't touching the ground, and I'm breifly I'm reminded of the Skitty chasing it's own tail, just vertically. Anti-Gravity Skitty.

Technology has improved the way that attacks are learnt vastly. The first attack I ever learnt was from a hefty manual that Lorenzo's father had picked up in a market stall. It was called "How to teach your gryados Hyper Beam" and it was about 500 pages long and not very specific for a Latios. It was so inefficient it took months to learn. After a few years, they did to-order DVDs that - permitting the pokemon understood basic English - you could sit a pokemon down in front of and it and it would provide a step by step guide with examples, as well as appearances from pokemon who had learnt that move that would talk (in poke speak) about the pitfalls and other problems they ran into trying to learn the move and how they got around it. The last part was mainly useless until the HM TM companies (the people who made the guides/DVDS) realized that the recording equipment they had didn't record the higher frequency of pokemon chat, and so until they upgraded their equipment not one pokemon understood the DVDS. Using the DVD was easier than the manual, but it still took a long time because the guides were rushed in places as they tried to do one for every pokemon. So learning with a DVD took about 3 weeks, generally.

Now-er-days (Arceus I sound old), A trainer can download a specialized specific guide for a specific pokemon on a specific attack onto anything that has a screen via the pokedex database. Because it's done in a combo if text and moving images, instead of with a presenter like the DVDs, it takes less time to make and so isn't rushed. It's interactive too, so you could theoretically give a pokemon the device and they'd learn the move in a few minutes. Of course, they can't navigate through it if they don't have arms, or in our case, claws to sharp to press the touch screen. The TM downloads cost a lot less then either of its predecessors as well.

Since there isn't a tutorial for us as we don't exist in the professors professional opinion, Bianca has to choose the pokemon most like us to download the tutorial/guide for, as it varies slightly depending on if the pokemon has arms, what shape it is, the aura/psychic core location etc...

Bianca presses a button on her phone and I presume it starts downloading, because she starts talking to me, leaving Latias to do her rolling around in the air while the guide downloads. "Latios? You need to practice your agility." She tells me in a matter-of-factly voice. I frown to show her my distaste but she carries on. "I think a slalom would be a good idea, don't you?". I'm floating horizontally and level with her head, 1ft seperatig us, and the small nod I give her is easily interpretable. "Okay then. Show me the tighest turn you can do and then we'll work from there.

Now, theoretically I should be able to turn on the spot at any speed as I'm only propelling myself with psychic. Bianca claims, though, that doing that is cheating because I've technically stopped as my linear speed is zero, even though I'm rotating at the origional linear speed. Instead, she wants me to do the tightest turn that still involves moving laterally and not just turning on the spot. This is more difficult than it sounds because once the air is flowing over my wings, special aerodynamic properties that I have yet to understand kick in. I see the reason why she'd want me to though: If I'm turning around, say, a tree, I can't go through it in order to turn. The turn that I'd have to make would ideally involve my wings brushing the tree trunk for the entire turn. In practice it's not that easy.

Given that, I still need to know exactly how fast and where she wants me to make this turn. I tilt my head at her and drift backwards, prompting that I need more info. She sighs and puts her hands on her hips, whilst in the background - proberbly inaudible to Bianca - I can her the sound of a bone hitting a water balloon. Cubone has started showing off his attacks then.

"Right. Go to the edge of the tree line there" - she points to the furthest away tree - "and accelerate to as fast as you can, then I want you to turn around me as tightly as possible." As she says this, the hand she was pointing with points out the flight path she wants me to take, her palm indicating where and how close she wants my wings relative to herself. It's about 10 centimeters away from her body and facing inwards, indicating that - naturally - I'm going to do this turn on my side with my wings facing towards the centre of rotation.

She checks her phone and I fly over to the tree I was indicated. Its roughly half the width of a football field away, and I think I could probably get upto 150 miles an hour before I'll have to turn around Bianca. I always start this kind of exercise sideways so I don't have to roll mid-flight and consequently slow down. As I'm setting up I hear Bianca call to Latias. "About 30 seconds!". She's telling Latias how long is left before the download is finished.

I turn to face her and then rotate myself 90 degrees to the right, so that my wings will line up to the side of her. My right wing is almost touching the grass, the left one is way up in the air. It's an effort to keep it there, but not a big one. Keeping balance while I'm stationary in this position is more difficult, I keep feeling like I'm going to topple over.

Bianca turns back and sees me hovering sideways. "OK! WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" She shouts over to me. I've been ready for ages. I do one final check before setting off. My wings are as flat as they could be, my arms are tucked in and my neck is as straight as an arrow. Check done, I set off.

'Set Off' isn't the right kind of phrase to use. 'Set Off' implies there's some kind of lazy or relaxed aspect to the process, which is definitely not what I did. In my book, anything that accelerates as fast as I do does not 'set off'. I can't think of a word that gives off the immensity of which I depart, but I resolve myself to think of one later.

Whatever the word, I go with extreme force almost directly at Bianca. In milliseconds I'm at 60 miles an hour, and in around a second I'm at 120. Already, I'm just about to reach Bianca, the distance is that small. When I say just, I'm talking millisecond scale. I try to concentrate on the turn I'm going to make. It all boils down to numbers, so Bianca tells me. I weigh 70 'kilos' and am travelling at 120 miles an hour. The force that pushes me out of the turn and therefore makes it difficult is called 'centrifugal'. The further away from the centre of the turn I am, the less force it takes to complete said turn, and the other way round. None of this I can trust, what with it being numbers, which I don't understand.

Instead, I boil it down to psychic power. The power required to complete the turn in such a short distance includes pushing out the air that you've already disturbed, and more difficulty rotating your own body around the centre of roatation, AKA Bianca.

This all goes through my head instinctively as I enter the turn. The whole turning event takes less than the blink of a human eyelid, but is quite long in my relative view due to my brain speeding up its computation time when I'm travelling at high speed (an instinctive mechanism made to help with avoiding obstacles).

Bianca appears to be completely still as I pass the front of her. The moment my wings get in line with her middle, I twist them as violently as I can to alter the airflow but not to much that I slow down. This isn't enough to overcome the speeds though, and a lot of psychic force needs to be thrown in there to combat the centrifugal force. I concentrate as hard as I can on my goal, which is a rotation around point Bianca. Degree by painful degree, I turn around her, but straight away I know this will not be the turn she's looking for. Even though I'm focused entirely on the turn and my wings are at what I can only say is the perfect angle, I'm drifting away from Bianca, who says not had time to turn her neck to look at me. I'm 90 degrees to the starting turn angle and already at Bianca's side, when ideally I'd be at her middle. I ask myself the question "Am I really focused on the turn if I have time for doubt?" and the turn goes even wider, so much so that by the time I'm facing the opposite direction to the way I came, I'm 2ft from Bianca. I briefly power away to complete the exercise.

Turn done, I laizily slow down and reflect on the turn, like Bianca says I should do.

It's better than your average fighter jet. In fact, its better than the latest fighter jet. By about 100%. And as far as I know, it's better than any airborne pokemon on record. But it isn't a personal best, and that's the key thing according to Bianca. She says that the performance of others is irrelevant and that doing my own best is the key thing. I don't think I have this time because I was too focused on what I was doing wrong (Not Concentrating) and not the specifics of the turn.

I'd say that Bianca was reading my mind if she could, because as I do a much lower speed turn to face her she puts on her trainer voice and gives me a quick 'pep' talk. "That was good, almost so fast I didn't see it, but we're not looking at SPEED, we're looking at the TURN and how long it takes you to do it. It didn't take that many seconds, but you entered the turn here" she puts her hand out to her side, a pretty good estimate of where I started the turn - " but it ended HERE" and with that she walks a drastically exaggerated distance to her left at where she thinks I finished the turn.

She's just about to continue when her phone does a little "bing bong" noise, like a doorbell in her pocket. Latias stops doing her perpetual forward roll and flies the 5ft over to Bianca's pocket, which she bumps her snout against repeatedly. She also puts on a nagging voice as she does this. "Bianca. Phone. Download done! Learn new move! Hurry!". Bianca postpones my lecture to deal with this. "Sorry Latios, Just w- LATIAS CALM DOWN!" The end of the sentence sounds a tad angry and Latias backs away from Bianca, drifting backwards and looking downwards as she normally does when she's sorry or apologizing. Sometimes she puts her hands out and slides her claws between each other, which makes her look a bit more apologetic, but she doesn't this time.

Bianca digs into her pocket and pulls out the phone, before tapping a few buttons on its screen with her finger. While she does this it makes a variety of clicking and buzzing noises, but eventually she's content with however it's set up, and she walks over to Latias, who managed to be apologetic for all of 2 seconds and now is just plain hyperactive. Before Bianca has even managed to walk over to her, she's already flown over to Bianca and is trying to get a look at the tiny portable screen.

Latias' neck is very flexible and she somehow manages to wedge her head inbetween Bianca and the screen. How she can see what's on the screen from that close up, I don't know, but she does, because she starts murmuring about the move. "Looks pretty powerfull, oh that's why it shouldn't be able to miss, why can a grass type learn this?". I get closer because I'm kind-of interested too. Normally I only learn specific Dragon/Psychic/Special/Fire moves because, at the end of the day, 'grass' doesn't sound particularly powerful. It can be crushed, burnt, sliced, frozen, kicked and generally destroyed with minimal effort. 'Dragon' sounds a lot more intimidating.

Just as I arrive to glance at it, Bianca lifts the screen over Latias and back so she can see it. "Okay. If I set it off and put it on the floor, Latias, you can look at it and give the basics a try while I run through some agility stuff with Latios, right?". Latias nods and Bianca gently puts her phone screen-up on the grass as Latias floats lower to the ground to get a better look at it. Bianca walks back so Latias can hover directly over it, before leaning in and tapping it. Content that it's working, she walks over to me.

"Right... so. The issue we have with you is a wide turning circle. How about you show me the motions you go through when you turn and I'll try and offer suggestions." She says. How she's going to offer suggestions about psychic control and flight when she can do neither is beyond me, but I comply. "Sure. Wings" I say as I actuate my wings as I would if I was doing the turn I just did. I say it simply for the sake she knows I'm doing something, even if she can't understand what. Bianca stands and watches as I move my wings all the way out and angled downwards at the back, which would make the air flow push me into a backwards turn if I was moving forwards. She looks like I should be doing more.

After a brief couple of seconds of her just looking and me just floating, and no sound but the sound of Latias talking to herself through the video on the phone, Bianca speaks up. "Sooo... That's it? You move your wings and that's it?". She sounds a mix of surprised and disappointed, but I counter her question well.

"Well it's not like I've got legs to move or anything! No." I say, shaking my head to make it clearer to her. As I do this she walks around me. I rotate so I'm still facing her, but go back to my origional position when she says "stay still" in a softer voice. A few seconds later, another command. "Just come down a bit..." and she gives a light tug on my back. I float downwards until the tug loosens, and I'm at Bianca's stomach level. Suddenly, she grabs my tail fins. I try and whip my head round to observe, but my neck isn't flexible enough to be able to see. "What ar-". I'm interrupted by Bianca. "Sorry. Can't you move these?" She asks. Yes, I can. But it's only usefull for turning left and right, not up and down, and their not as effective as my wings, hence my preference to turning backwards or forwards.

To explain that to her, I fly right around her in a circle, slow enough for her to see that I've moved my tail fins to the left. She gets the gist eventually. "Oh, right. Errrr..." I stop flying around her and look over to Latias, who is still looking at the screen. I'm interested in this move, so I fly over for a look too while Bianca thinks. I hover over next to Latias at a slightly higher height to her, otherwise our wings would clash and I wouldn't be able to get close enough to see the screen.

My wing brushes against her back and she looks up briefly before looking back down at the screen, not wanting to miss anything. "It's for a Sigilyph, whatever that is" she says to me as she looks back at the screen. The Sigilyph is in the background doing the move, whilst a reporter in front explains the specifics. I listen in to the sound, which is slightly muffled by the fact that the place where it comes out is on the back of the phone, which is lying on its back on the grass.

"...energy through the surrounding natural environment. When practicing this move It's a good idea to start in a place filled with nature, like plants, then start going further away as you practice until you can group the power from the attack just from air. It's also..."

"Latios, don't wander off!" Bianca shouts once she realizes I'm no longer paying attention to her. She walks over to both of us and rests her hand on my back as I look up at her. "Do you want to lean the new move too?" she asks, which is the great thing about her. So long as we try what she wants us to do once, she'll let us do something else if we don't like it, which I have to admit is the case as far as agility training is the case. Latias does her version on sush-ing, which sounds like a hostile pokemon hissing. Bianca looks surprised but remembers what Latias means when she does that and duely silences.

In the end, learning a new move will always beat trying to do a turn really quickly, so I nod my head. Bianca gives a quiet "Okay" to avoid Latias shushing her again. "I'll check up on Cubone and Jay"s she adds and Latias looks up and gives her a 'if you don't be quiet and let me watch this, I will find some way to hurt you that will please my sadistic side' glare. Bianca says "sorry" and wanders off towards where the slight noise of water balloons popping is coming from which indicates where Cubone is showing off his moves.

I'm left in the garden with Latias and the tiny screen, so I look back down and pay attention, as the Sigilyph is starting to explain the moves...

* * *

"BLAPOPH!" - That is me, having just finished the first Friday and overall week of proper work. Its incredibly fun (I'm not saying exactly what it is muhahaha!) but the assessments are super strict I am SO not looking forward to the 2 hour journey home, which involves mean bus drivers, trains filled with sweaty people and crying babies and... Never mind, you didn't come here to listen to me woe about stuff that's irrelevant to the story.

Good news: Deviant account working and computer is starting to render! Check out themoderator-deviantart-com (Replace hyphens - with dots .). Images uploaded will drop hints as to where the story line is going, so feel free to conspiricise as much as you like! I'm adding more images as the computer spits them out, so stay tuned. they're all up for FREE HD download too so if you want them as backgrounds you can av' em. If you want a custom wallpaper or book cover doing, don't hesitate to PM or ask in a review!

Read and review! Seeing that Email after my early wake-up or after a long shift makes my whole day feel complete!

Thank you all!


	17. Chapter 17: Unfortunate Test Subject

A-what up! Firstly, latiasfan1, loving the new chapter, keep up the good work.

Secondly, My first paypacket comes in next week (Hurray! etc...). Naturally (being an aerospace engineer) I'm gonna buy some tech that'll let me make a fully functioning, life size, flying, moving, gesturing, Latios. Plans sorted, filed and possible. It's going to be able to carry 5 kilo loads, navigate to anywhere on earth, identify people, AND fly in any oriention or rotation, just like Latios in the film (Perhaps not underwater though...). May even attach a flame-thrower like device if the local council will let me (Ha! No.) Wish me luck with that! If any of you know of anything like that being done before, post it in a review or PM, I'd be very interested to see how others did this, if indeed anyone even has :)

Enough engineering stuff though, you're here for Latios' unique viewpoint on life:

* * *

**Chapter 17: Unfortunate Test Subject**

The video runs for about 3 mintes, during which the Sigilyph does a demonstration and an explanation of each step. The only issue I have is that Sigilyph looks nothing like we do, so bits of it are difficult to understand. I can see why Bianca chose it, its a Flying/Pyschic type pokemon, which is close to Dragon/Psychic, but it doesn't have certain physical features, like wings whereas we do.

From what I can assume though, it looks like you've got to channel some psychic into the local wildlife (plants etc...) or natural stuff and then retrieve said psychic energy from them, syphoning off a small amount of said nature's energy in the process. The theory behind it after that is then similar to a psybeam/hyperbeam combo, and involves releasing the energy via the species' psychic outlet. For us, that could bee seen as the triangle on our chests but it can also work from our mouths, because not only is it easier to aim while flying, it looks so cool. In my opinion.

After another demonstrartion by the Sigilyph, and the human presenter inviting us to try out the guide's other interesting features (which include a move troubleshooter and 'social network integration', whatever they are) the video stops and the screen cuts to the menu, which we can't interact with as our claws are too sharp. Latias flies up to human head height and waits for me to join her. Everything is a competition to her, and I bet she'll make this one. I fly up to the same height and opposite so I'm looking at her.

"I bet I can learn this before you!" She squeals the moment I make eye contact. The prospect of me gaining something by winning this bet is compelling, but it depends what it is. "Really? What you betting?" I ask her, which makes her think for all of two seconds before reluctantly deciding. "The right to sleep in the comfy tree tonight". That tree is mine anyways, but suddenly SHE'S offering it up to bet. Then again, I'm smarter than her and it'll be easy for me to learn it and win. "Sure. When do we say that one of us has won?".

At this precise moment, Jay emerges from the woods to our right and looks at us. "Did I interrupt something?" he says in his ever clueless voice.

Is he implying me and Latias are courting? Oh he is so going to get it!

Me and Latias both turn back to look at each other. "First one to fire an energy ball at Jay and hit him wins" Latias responds, giving me a toothy grin. She hates him just as much as me. Or does she? Because the next thing I know she's flown over to him and starts cooing. If I was Jay it would sound like she was telling me to sit down. But why?

She flies in a circle a few milimeters above the grass infront of Jay and then stops, floating above the indicated patch with her claws out and crossed in front of her while she floats vertically. She looks like she's waiting. Jay gives an unsteady "Okay" before standing where Latias just indicated. He stays stood though, and Latias has to fly low to the ground and rest of her tail fins on it before Jay gets the picture and sits down. "Like this?" He asks and gets a coo of incouragment and a nodding head from Latias.

I'm perplexed as to why she's doing this, but let her anyway. It could be interesting.

Jay is now sat on the floor, crossed legged and looking up at Latias' head. She lowers her head so her arms will reach it and covers her eyes with her hands. It looks quite funny and Bianca would love to paint it, but she drops her hands and waits for Jay to copy. He eventually does. "Cover my Eyes?" He asks as he covers his eyes with his hands. Latias gives a positive sounding yes and tells him "No Peeking!" Before flying back to me. "What's that for?" I ask her in a hushed tone. Her response is rather quite genius.

"Da-Daaa! One non-moving, non struggling, completely unaware, Human Target!" she cries and indicates Jay with her claws. Said Jay has no idea what we're on about, but nonetheless opens his eyes. "What are you doing?" He enquired as Latias flies back over to him in a hurried style, covering her eyes with her paws yet again. "NO PEEKING! NO PEEKING!" She repeats like he'll understand. He closes his eyes again and gives us an "Well... Okay...".

Latias flies back over to me. "Ready? 3... 2... 2... GO!" She says, and heads off to the closest tree to try collecting enough psychic power from it as possible. I don't bother to correct her counting and head over to the closest nature-y thing, a rose bush. I float directly in front of a rose bud, about 2 ft off the ground.

Now, the guide says to give it some psychic power and it should collect more in return. I concentrate on the hedge and try to give it some psychic power.

The rose I was looking at turns brown, wilts on the spot, then dies. Then bursting briefly into flames. Personally the whole "Bursting into flames" thing was uncalled for, and I briefly ponder the spiteful nature of a rose. It's the kind of thing that stuck-up flowers like that do, bursting into flames for no reason just out of spite for me. Although I think the issue is perhaps me giving it too much psychic force and not the inanimate object's own feeling of spite.

I go further down the bush and pick out another rose. Since I set fire the last one with as minimal amount of psychic as I possibly can, I decide that I'll focus on the whole bush as an entity and not a single flower. I fly back and unleash a whisper of invisible psychic power over the bush. After a few seconds, I draw it back in through my mouth, which is harder than it sounds.

I have no clue if it worked or not, and Latias is staring intently at the tree, so there's no telling what's going on in that respect. I have got a build up of energy in my mouth that it starting to burn, so I just go for it and mould it into a ball shape, before giving it a psychic push towards a sat down Jay, concentrating on him as the guide suggests.

So far it had been a silent process, up until I released the ball of energy. When I do that, a noise similar to that of a hyper beam explodes forwards and directly towards Jay, who is so surprised he opens her eyes. Latias stops concentrating and looks at him.

The Energy Ball is going way too high though, and a sat down Jay notices this: "Ha! Missed me!".

Of course, he doesn't know the nature of Energy Ball, in that it guides itself towards the target. So even though it looks like its almost definitely not going to hit him, it's is. Jay has just enough time to gloat one more time "You couldn't even hi-"

With that he gets hit with a rather weak Energy Ball, but an energy ball all the same. With a crackle and a moderately sized explosion, Jay gets engulfed in a cloud of smoke.

"That tree is mine tonight" I remind Latias while the fireworks continue in front of us. She just huffs, upset about the loss of the tree that wasn't even hers anyway. Eventually, the smoke clears and Jay is revealed still sat on the floor, only the grass around him and some parts of his (previously) ridiculously styled hair are missing/burnt.

Bianca must have heard the explosion, because she crashes into the clearing, with cubone in tow. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" she shouts as she goes over to Jay and cradles his head in her arms. He manages to wheeze out an "I'm fine" before falling to the floor and bursting into a coughing fit. Bianca gives the two of us a death glare. I point at Latias, who starts pointing at me. There is no way I'm getting in trouble for this, it was Latias' idea to learn this move in the first place.

"DON'T STAND THERE! GET SOME WATER". Get some water? Get some water? She seems to have forgotten she's dealing with with a pair of pokemon that both know hydropump. With that, we both hydropump Jay in the chest. She just manages to step to the side as they both hit him.

Bianca stops looking angry and instead just frowns. "Latios... Latias? Where does that water... come from?" She asks in a curious tone.

Come to think about it, I don't actually know. What I do know is that if I open my mouth and squeeze a muscle in my neck, water comes out. I'm not sure about Latias, but in theory it should work the same. I'm pretty sure it's water though...

"I'm not really sure" I tell her with an uncertain tone. "Me neither" nods Latias afterwards. Bianca looks even more unsure at us after that. Behind her, Cubone is struggling to breathe, he's laughing so much. Jay is laid back on the floor, no longer coughing and instead just taking deep, careful, breaths. Eventually he speaks up. "Why did they do that?".

Bianca turns on us. "Yes. Good question Jay. Why DID they do that? Latias?" She says in a rather menecing tone as she advances towards the both of us. Latias is about 3 meters to my right, but US floating in the exact same manner as me: Wings in a V shape, dead still for once and with the neck slightly bent/bucked, tracking Bianca with our eyes. Bianca is now clearly walking towards Latias, who has started to float backwards slightly.

"It. It was Latios! Not ME!" and with that points at me with her right claw. "Really? You know Latios doesn't pick up moves THAT quickly." is Bianca's response, which is partly true: I am a slow learner. Most of the time.

Behind Bianca, keeping dead silent, is Cubone. He's copying her way of walking, and then exaggerating the movements, bringing his stubby little knees higher then normal. He's also wielding the bone like a soldiers rifle, grabbing the bottom and slinging it over his shoulder. I realise he's making fun of Bianca and saying she's ruling over us too much. When Bianca stops short a foot of Latias, Cubone does the same, but sweeps his feet together and does a mini salute with the paw that isn't holding the bone.

It looks funny and I can't help but laugh, which is an odd sound to humans. Bianca stops staring at Latias and looks dead at me. Cubone drops the military persona and instead recreates an imaginary noose around his neck, before pulling on it and pretending to hang himself. The message is simple "You're dead" and is delivered in a joking kind of way, but he's annoyed me enough for me to psychic him up into the air and toss (in a joking kind of way) him into an almost recovered Jay, which he hits with an "OOF!".

Bianca is still looking and advancing slowly towards me, unknown to all the activity behind her. "What's so funny?" She asks. Clearly she's taking my laughing as proof - which it isn't - that I'm guilty - which I am.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I say in a ridiculously incredulous voice. Latias is following behind Bianca, floating vertically with her head at Bianca's head level. The moment I make eye contact with her, she raises her claw to her left ear. Oh, she's going to play this game...

Bianca is still walking towards me, there's less than a meter to go, when she realizes I'm looking over her shoulder, not at her. She turns around and jumps back as Latias' dragon face is no more than a few centimeters away from her own. "Ah!" She cries out.

I slid out my right arm put my paw up to my ear in imitation of Latias, who grins at Bianca. Bianca realizes just a tad too late what is going to happen and whips her head back to me. She sees my paw up to my ear, and has just enough time to say "Awwww Cra-"

Me an Latias both pounce on Bianca, folding our arms in to avoid scratching her before levitating ourselves directly above her and then switching of our levitation, whereupon we plummet downwards and onto Bianca.

All this happens while we both simultaneously scream out a shrill "GET DOWN MR PRESIDENT!"

This is a game Bianca is WELL accustomed to, and has just enough time to cover her head with her arms and buck her knees before Latias falls on her, closely followed by me. We're rather soft though, so rather than being crushed the experience is likened to that of someone throwing a matress at you. So she says.

I realize why Latias has done this: Bianca always loves it when we play a surprise game. So theoretically, when she gets up she should be giggling or at least not be angry at us for burning and then drowning her boyfriend. Personally, after saying that over in my head I'm not convinced. But Latias knows Bianca better than me, and sure enough she pops her head out from under Latias' wing, almost right next to my head, and starts laughing. "You Guys!" she chuckles as she extracts an arm from under my torso and ruffles the feathers on my head, a gesture which feels caring, like a mother would do it. I look at her and the first thing I note is that her hair has retained it's shape, something which you don't really expect it to do since it's rather a fragile shape and it's made of hair. Especially after being fallen on.

Bianca stays on the floor and looks to her left, expecting to see Latias' head. Because we were facing opposite directions though, all she gets is a face full of tail feathers. Bianca, being Bianca, decides to get her own back on Latias for starting the game and starts tickling the tail feather.

Mine and Latias' tail feathers are one of the few things that differ on us. Whereas mine are a set of triangular flat panals either side of me that I can only rotate left and right, Latias' are more like feet, in that they can actuate and rotate around in all directions. Their a lot more like feet then mine, and in that respect they are also incredibly sensitive. That said, Latias breaks into the loudest and shrillist giggling fit of the day.

"No No! STOP! AAA! STAHP! NO!"

She moves the fin (although it could also be a flipper) up and down, trying to get it away from Bianca's grasp. All it does though is slap her rather comically in the face, once, twice, four times, before Bianca gets fed up and pushes Latias' posterior away from her, a task that is quite easily accomplished as Bianca weighs more than Latias.

Latias is now no longer holding Bianca down, and she gets up, putting her hands on her hips and looking down at us with a mock-disapproving face. "Honestly!" She sighs, smiling as she does.

"I think... It's time for some revenge" She joyously announces as she walks over to Jay, whom Cubone is prodding with the bone, in an attempt to get him to do something other than just lie there.

"Get up!". Prod.

"Mhuna". No movement.

"UP! Please?". Prod.

"Gahah!". No movement.

I decide to observe this for the time being. I wonder what Bianca meant by revenge? It's obviously not going to be REAL revenge, because she was smiling. So it'll proberbly be nothing, or maybe something fun.

"Jay! I've got an idea! Why don't we test their agility with the paintball guns?" Bianca asks him once she's in hearing range.

Damn. Not fun.

Upon hearing this, Jay immediately responds, enticed by the invite to possible cause us a little bit of pain. Considering he hadn't responded to Cubone prodding him, he suddenly seems very active, and he jumps to his feet. As he does, a few of his more charred hairs fall off his head, but he doesn't notice. "Paint Ball? what? With them? They'll pwn us!" He asks Bianca, even slipping in an old-English term. I'm more astounded that he hasn't for once said that he'll be better then everyone else at something.

Cubone is stood there, having jumped backwards to get out of the way of Jay leaping up, thoroughly confused. "What's a Paint Ball?" He asks. Since Bianca can't understand him, I decide I should fly over and tell him. I levitate myself off the ground and correct my orientation so I'm flying level before lazily (about 30mph) drift over to Cubone to explain. I fly low to the ground and stop about a foot short of Cubone's rather gruesome mask. "Okay, so you have something that's like a gun, but isn't. Okay?". Cubone gives a black stare that says "elaborate" all over it, which is a very big word considering the size of his expression.

"Right, so the 'guns' don't fire bullets. They just fire a plastic ball filled with paint." Cubone nods like he kind-of understands. "Good. So normally a group of humans will go to an arena and play 'paintball' where they basically shoot at each other. When they get hit by a paintball, the paint bursts over them and they get a little paint mark which means they've been shot." Cubone ,quite rightfully, is still slightly confused. "So you two play against Bianca? Do you have a special gun or something?". Ha, I wish! "No, you see there's a catch" I say, a hint of annoyance creeping into my voice. "WE don't have guns. Bianca hides in places around the garden and we have to avoid being shot by her, which normally means dodging around the paintballs as they're coming towards you, because Bianca is VERY good at hiding."

"Ah," Cubone responds, leaving whatever he was going to say afterwards hanging in the air. Bianca looks down and addresses me, prompting me to rise up to her head height out of politeness. Latias has also flown over, and it appears Bianca was keeping Jay up to speed on the whole paintballing deal, because he's headed off in the direction of the outhouse where Bianca keeps a selection of water balloons, hula hoops and the paintball guns and associated ammunition. Lorenzo also keeps a shotgun and a few rounds in a steel cage there to "surprise the vermin", even though shotguns were made illegal a few decades ago.

"Right you two. We're playing the paintball game." Latias gives a little "YAY!", I swear she's not got any sense of pain limitation. She actually likes this game. I'm impartial to it, really, but on occasions I really hate it. Said occasions are normally the ones where I'm being shot at 5 rounds a second from an unknown location, and no matter where I go it still seems to be happening.

Which is surprisingly often.

"Latias, Latios, you two are the team you normally are". In other words, we're going to be shot at. "Me and Jay will have the guns". AND JAY? Oh well, he'll probably a terrible shot. "Have you explained it to Cubone?" she asks either one of us as she looks down and to her right to him. He gives a little nod. "Good. So Cubone... Which team do you want to be on?" She asks him. Like it's a question that she won't know the answer to.

In response, Cubone takes a step forward and hugs Bianca's leg with one arm. He wants to be on her team, AKA the team shooting at me. Although to be honest I don't blame him. "Traitor!" I squark at him light heartedly. He just turns towards me and makes a noise that sounds like he's doing that raspberry thing that babies like. I think he did it to tease me, but I let him off... He's just so cute...

A few minutes later, Jay comes back holding 3 shiney silver crates with handles on them. He's got two of them in one hand, with the smaller third one and a white cylnder in the other hand, and a rucksac on his back. He walks between me and Latias, and sets the stuff down in front of Bianca. "Who's is who's?" He asks as he lays each shiney crate on its end and puts the handle facing Bianca.

"Well, the two large ones only have a small difference, so it doesn't really matter. I certainly don't mind. Bu-" Bianca is rudely interrupted by an over-enthusiastic Jay. "I want that one!" He shouts, pointing to the middle case. The only thing identifying the contents inside is a red label with "AUTOMATIC" on the case that Jay is now pointing at, whereas the other large case has a yellow label with "MANUAL" on it. Bianca always uses that one anyway, so she just shrugs and carries on from where she was interrupted. "Sure. But I got you to fetch the small one especially for Xubone" She says, looking down at him with a smile before jerking her head towards the small case, it's at least half the size of the other two. The intent of this gesture is clear: Go On! Open it!

As Cubone takes some weary steps towards the case, Jay leans over and presses two buttons on the front. A catch releases and two clips jump out, unlocking the case. All Cubone needs to do is lift the case lid, which he does with great curiosity. I lower my neck to get a closer look. Inside the case is a small gun (I think it's called a pistol) with a small handle that looks perfect for Cubone's hand to wrap around. He transfers his bone to his left hand and picks up the gun with his right. The moment he raises the gun from the protective padding inside the case I realize why Bianca asked for that one for him. Not only does it fit his paw perfectly, the earlier comment about him being the worlds cutest assisin rings absolutely true. He looks so cute but evil, it's unbelievable.

"Aww cool!" He says as he gives it a once over with his eyes. Since Bianca doesn't understand him, I give her a nod that lets her know she made the right choice. Bianca does an even wider smile as she observes Cubone observing the gun. "I thought that kind of gun was just so... YOU! Plus it's the only one we've got that I think you can lift..."

She leans down over his head and shows him some basics; where the ammunition goes, how to load it, how not to hold it, how to aim... That kind of thing.

While she's doing that, Jay shoves past us to get to his selected weapon. He jumps over the cases and around to the front, where he flips open the catches and raises the top. I turn my neck so I'm looking at Latias, who is looking downwards at the gun inside the box Jay has opened. ,Something tells me he's going to enjoy this too much" I say to Latias, a hint of disappointment creeping into my voice. She looks up at me, a happy kind of look on her face. "What, don't you like paintballing?" she asks, as if it's normal to like it. "Lets just say I prefer to avoid pain that isn't from battling, okay?" is my slightly irritated response.

Jay picks up his gun as Bianca finishes her breif tutorial. Bianca sees Jay looking somewhat confused at what he's chosen and gives him a helping hand. "No, the paintballs go in here. Don't point that end at your face. or anyone else's face. Yet. Honestly, you're like a five year old!" she keeps telling him as she runs through the same tutorial she just gave Cubone. The pokemon himself is stood there, practicing his cute badass look by aiming down the 'pistol's' sight. Bless him, he's even got his feet in a fighting stance to lesson the 'recoil' which Bianca says is less with a paintball gun but can still suprise you.

Bianca finishes teaching an over-excited Jay and addresses all of us. "Okay then, you two" she nods at me and Latias "need your masks." She reaches into the bag Jay brought out and pulls out a selection of masks. They used to be really bulky, more like helmits than masks. But now, they are this that can mould to the face shape, but then it's hit - like say from a paint ball - it becomes solid. Perfect for protecting pokemon with oddly shaped heads such as ourselves. She leans across the cases that are now open and empty on the floor and puts a mask on Latias' head, stretching some elastic around the back of Latias' ears. She adjusts it so that the clear material is over Latias' eyes, before giving it a quick flick with her finger. "That Okay?" she asks and Latias gives a cute little nod and a coo.

She walks over to me and I fly forward a bitnso my neck is over the cases and easier to reach, and she does the same, giving me a scratch behind the ear after she puts the elastic round. The mask is pressed against my face and the see through bits are just over my eyes, so it's fitted properly. The material smells like its been cleaned recently, but the nose holes don't quite line up with my actual nose, so the smell from the outside world gets dulled.

Bianca steps back and grabs two more masks, one of which she passes to Jay. Jay isn't a complete fool and manages to figure out how to put the mask on. After he does that he turns to Bianca, expecting a congratulations for completing the simple task. Bianca, however, is looking in the opposite direction, down at cubone.

"Err.. we don't have a mask for you, Cubone... But the eye holes in your... 'helmit'... are smaller than the paint balls, so if your okay with that? Is that... 'helmit' strong enough?" she asks him, clearly uncomfortable with referencing the fact he's wearing a skull of his dead relative as headgear. At least she didn't ask why he was wearing it or to take it off.

Cubone doesn't seem unduely concerned or even slightly worried about Bianca's question and gives her a chubby thumbs up with the same hand the bone is in. Bianca pulls a concerned face and Cubone settles her concerns by hitting himself in the head with the bone, creating a very solid sounding 'thunk'. The skull stays put and Cubone gives a thumbs up "See, it's fine! Can we start?"

"Well, Okay then" she sighs, and moves her head back up so she's facing me and Latias. "Okay, you two can set off from I say go. You have the time it takes us to load our guns to fly away, then we'll be after you. Lets see... The time now... is..." she glances at the phone she just pulled out of her pocket - though come to think of it I don't remember her picking it up off the floor where we left it. "Eleven Thirty. So we'll play until 12, then when th bell rings " - she's taking about the big bell in the clock tower that rings on the hour -"we'll call it in. Whichever one of you two gets hit with less paint wins. Kapeesh?"

Me and Latias both nod, although she does this mock salute to go with it, raising her arm so the red shielding is upwards before bringing it around to her neck. "Good! Are you ready?"

Uh, duh, of course we're ready.

"Get set!"

OH ITS THE COUNT DOWN! In THAT case I wasn't ready, as I'm facing Bianca and will have to turn around to reach the woods without running into her. I swivel on the spot, checking my wings are clear of Bianca and Latias, before lowering them and making my neck rigid, ready for the quick take-off.

I've literally just done that when Bianca shouts "GO!"

* * *

Latios paintballing, who'd have thought? Although If your looking at it from Jay's perspective, I'd drop the 't' from it. *Evil Grin*

My computer has finally started working, and I've uploaded some teaser images from the next few chapters to there. Be sure to check it out: themoderator-deviantart-com,gallery, (replace dashes - with dots . and the commas , with slashes /) and go to the Life Like Latios folder (they're in featured too!) All free to download and use as wallpapers for your computer or your phone, or for whatever you want really! (though I do ask that if you put it on the public domain that you say I made it, thanks!)

One more thing... See that button that says "Review"?  
I'd tap that.


	18. Chapter 18: Paintball

Gahahedahah medeph legovynic. That is all...

* * *

I set off at the end of the "G" in "GO" and reach the tree line before the end of the 'O'. Latias takes longer, not a fan of high acceleration, but catches up to me about 5 meters into the trees. The trees in this area are quite densely packed, so I'm having a hard time steering round all of them.

"Hey Brother!" Latias shouts in my ear as she draws level with me. Considering the fact we're meant to be hiding, Latias shouting is really the last thing I need. I stop and turn to face her. She's flying not-quite horizontal, her head's angled a bit upwards instead of her back being parellel to the ground. You'd think that the paintball masks would distort speach and it difficult to understand, but it doesn't, because our mouthes articulate along the up-down of the mask. Also most of the sound we make comes from our throats. "Quiet down!" I say in a whisper. "If you want to talk, use telepathy, Do you WANT Bianca and that lot to find us?"

"Okay..." her telepathic voice beams into my head. "So, what we going to do?" she asks me, flying around so she's looking at me directly in the eyes. Its always weird when she does that, but when she's wearing the paintball mask, it just looks plain terrifying: the black plastic with the holes only around the eyes really highlights the orange in them, but in contrast the plastic looks really robotic, like she's from some future war where Pokemon are turned into cyborgs. It just doesn't look natural... However scary she looks, I must be at least double it, because, well, I'm double her size. And Male. And my head is pointier. I think.

"For starters, we're going to keep moving. That way we don't have to worry about them catching us off-guard" I telepath back. She gives a little nod and poses another question. "Sure thing, bro! But why don't we go invisible?" and with this disappears from the visible light spectrum. By, 'she' I mean her, and not the mask. In the dark this wouldn't be a problem, the black mask would just blend in. But right now, the mask is floating very visibly and incredibly creepily in front of my face, and the bright white daytime background. The greens and browns of the trees are doing little to camouflage it. Plus the paint won't turn invisible when it hits us, and cleaning the fibre side of our feathers takes FOREVER, as well as being slightly painful.

"Because, Latias" I project into her head with a noticeable sigh attached "Your mask doesn't turn invisible, does it. And neither does the paint?". She takes a second to mull this over before turning visible again and looking somewhat disappointed, though I can't fully tell as the mask is covering most of her facial cues. "Oh, Yeah." she sighs out loud, though it's not loud enough for Bianca to hear. "Go on then. After you..." she projects into my head, intending for me to fly on ahead. I don't really want to, as I'm less agile and more likely to get hit if I'm first. So I use the old excuse of "Ladies First", and withdraw my paw so I can give an indicating wave towards the 'path' onwards. Latias smiles at me for being such a gentleman (although generally pokemon don't have a concept of politeness) and flies on ahead. I follow on behind.

As we fly around, Latias telepaths me about remenial stuff. "I wonder what the race winner won this year?".  
"Proberbly the same thing they won last year" I respond, pausing half way through to fly around a tree that interrupted my concentration. Latias seems somewhat irritated by the simple nature of my response, and her aura reflects this. She changes the subject to something truely bizzare.

"After this, if I get hit with some paint, I think I'll have a shower"

Ah, bu- what? A shower? Did she get the wrong word? "A shower?" I send back, seriously confused. "Yeah, Shower. You know? At Bianca's house? water that comes out of a pipe and rains on you?"

"I know what a shower is" I telepath back, cutting short her description. I do know what a shower is. Bianca constantly has them to make her hair "glossy". But the point remains that Latias is a Pokemon. We don't NEED showers. We've got a really big pond, we can fly through massive clouds and the most effective cleaning tool of all, our tounges. The abrasive surface will remove just about anything that shouldn't be there from our feathers - though admittedly the first time I tried cleaning paint from myself with that method it tasted foul, so I wouldn't do it again. If all else fails, you've got an effective TWIN, for arceus sake. Ask them for a not-too-harsh hydropump!

Th point is, why cram yourself in a small cubical with a tiny jet of water when you've got all of the natural stuff right in front of you? If she says it's so she can have glossy hair like the woman in the adverts who uses a certain brand of shampoo because "I'm worth it", I may explode.

"Yeah, a shower. The pond's o-kay, but what if I want to put some conditioner on it? It's not naturally this glossy, I mea-"

I cut her out of my thoughts and interrupt "NOT NATURALLY GLOSSY? IT'S MADE OUT OF THE SAME FIBRES THAT HUMANS USE SPECIFICALLY *FOR* GLOSSYNESS!" I mentally shout at her. She pauses for a second before responding, proberbly waiting for me to cool down before she says something else that's rediculeously stupid.

"Really? Oh...". Not too bad, I was expecting her to go on about "au natural treatments" and other kinds of rubbish that the TV churns into her mind. "Well in that case I don't see why I should put anything on it that isn't natural" she continues, a rather sensible thourght.

"So I'll try some of that organic conditioner Bianca said works wond-"

"NO" I butt in, this time outloud so she knows that the NO definitely means "NO!"

I suspect it would have had more impact if I was in front of her, generally you have to actually look her in the eye before she'll listen to whatever it is you've been saying. Yet another reason why she's like a hyperactive toddler.

And why does my internal compass telling me we've gone in a complete circle? "Latias... are you sure we're not just going in a circle?" I telepathically ask her. Her aura looks like red and brown at the same time (not mixed. the same color at the same time). I guess this is a kind of sulky state of mind, because her answer, when it eventually comes, is flippant and also rather vauge.

"I know exactly where we are, Thank You." Even the tone in my head is stroppy.

I was right though, because before I can say so much as "I told you so", we arrive back at the clearing, which is lacking in armed persuers. "I meant to come here." She says directly to my head. "Really? Do explain" I reply, adding a sarcastic aura to it so her brain will know. She gets the message, but takes several seconds to actually think of a reason before she responds.

When she does, it's not verbal, or even a textual thourght. Me and Latias are closly psychic related. So it takes next to no effort for her to project her entire thought into my head. Because it's a raw thought and not an explanation, my own brain is reading it like it's my own thourght process, even though it knows it isn't.

Essentially, her plan revolves around the fact that the guns won't work without the bag with the ammunition in it. Or at least, they'll stop working soon after they can't access it. She doesnt know it's because they will run out of ammunition, but I do. So her plan is to steal it from the clearing and fly it over to the pond, then drop the bag in the middle, out of their reach.

It's a good plan, but her ego is already the size of a small cruise liner, so I inject some pessimism into my return thourght. "It's okay... I guess."

Not like she's even listening to my voice in her own head. She's already flown to the bag that's almost in the centre, and is in the process of trying to fit the shielding of her arm through the straps. I fly over too and watch. Her shielding, like most of her, is smaller than my version, and so she gets it through on the third or fourth try. When she flies up and starts to take the weight of the bag, though, she ends up flying almost diagonal to the ground, one wing almost touching the ground and the other way in the air. I give her a smirking sound and she tells me in a quiet and somewhat irritated voice to "shut it", before briefly concentrating really hard and rotating back round so she's horizontal left-to-right. Well, almost.

Job done, she yet again flies off without waiting for me towards the treeline, diving into it with relative ease, though she looks considerably more unstable due to the bag. The net result is me no longer having trouble keeping up. On the flat, I could beat her everytime, hands down. But because this is Latias, she always chooses the most difficult routes with the most narrow passageways. Which I'll have to fly around because I'm the size of her, plus another half.

But the bag has changed things, she's concentrating harder to stay level and not fly into trees, which I can say from personal experience is extremely painful if you do.

Things are going well, Latias isn't talking as she's too busy concentrating, I'm keeping up with her, she's heading the right way.

We're about to reach the edge of the tree line, when I sense a concealed aura coming up on my right. It's not concealed as such, just very dim. I only know 2 things that can dim their own aura. The first is Latias, who can do this as part of the whole 'psychic control' deal. The second one is Bianca. She's done so many of theise hiding games with us, she's learnt a very limited form of aura control.

I telepath Latias. "Bianca coming up on our right". Telepathic communication isn't bound by the same rules as speach, so communication is instant. This means that Latias can take instant action, which is to take a sharp left after two close together trees. We weren't travelling too fast, and I make the turn relatively well. Our flight is still silent though, with only the rustle of leaves indicating our location. So my ultrasensitive hearing quite clearly picks us Bianca cursing her luck from about 5 meters away.

"Good call bro" Latias telepaths back to me. We've so got this game in the bag now. Literally, IN the BAG: Bianca won't catch up with us until we've dumped the bag, even if Jay does find us, he won't be able to hit us, and Cubone only has that tiny little gu-

Suddenly, I hear a popping noise, and then a fraction of a second later, vision in my left eye stops. I can see blurs and distorted colors, but other than that, nothing. Like I've suddenly gone blind only in that eye. Obviously, I haven't. The popping noise sounded like a paintball gun being fired. The yellow streak across my vision is therefore most likely a paintball.

Regardless, I don't need two eyes to fly straight, and continue straight past where I heard the pop of the gun going off. "I got him! JAY! BIANCA! OVER HERE! I GOT LATIOS! IN THE EYE! Wait, your still -" I hear Cubone shout as I pass. Well that explains who shot me. A very good shot too, considering he's not done this before.

Latias heard this and did her best effort to speed up and generally take evasive manuvers, but this comes at a cost to me.

Me and Latias were both (and to an extent, still are) predatory. So our eyes are close together and facing forwards, meaning the distance to pray that is difficult to see can easily be worked out. However, the shape of our heads means anything past the centre of my snout is not visible to the opposite eye. So now my left eye is unusable, I have no idea what is where on my left exactly. I can presume, because my right eye picks it up as it flies past, but the moment it gets to within a meter, I can no longer predict it's precise location.

This is, unmistakably, a bad thing to have when you are trying to copy something that is smaller and more agile than you, and is travelling considerably faster.

On the second manuvere Latias pulls and I attempt to copy, my left wing smashes into an object that didn't come into my vision on account of the fact we were turning left, about 10 meters from where Cubone shot me.

The pain isn't too bad, but the momentum I had is enough to make me spin around and almost into a tree. Luckily, my stopping distance can be incredibly small so long as I can react quickly enough. Since my brain runs at 20 times that of a human, reaction times aren't an issue, and I dodge the tree.

Unfortunately, Jay is nearby. And when I say 'Unfortunately', I mean for him. I sense an aura on my left side. Its big, large and arrogant (and then there's the aura, ha ha). It can only be the almighty arrogant himself, Jay. Complete with paintball mask and gun.

He's not aiming at me though. I swivel round to look directly at it, and he's aiming at a right angle to where I am. I can see brief flashes of red in the same direction he's aiming at, which has got to be Latias. Jay is aiming at Latias.

Jay pulls the trigger within moments of me spotting him. Being the moron he is, he forgets that since he's sending something forwards quite quickly, the gun is going to try and go backwards. As he pulls the trigger, the first paintball flies in the direction he aimed it. But the gun keeps on firing, and the gun jumps around in his loose grip. The remaining paintballs go pretty much everywhere except where his target, Latias, is. And considering the first one went nowhere near her, overall his current performance is poor.

That isn't to say I don't label him as a threat. However far down he is on the threat list, he still is one. And as he's closest, I might as well remove him from that list. For his own safety, of course...

I ram into his side at high speed, taking the opportunity to wipe the eyepiece of my mask on his shirt as I do. Unfortunately for Jay, the process of me doing this involves me flicking my head upwards on impact. This is unfortunate for him as this motion also flips him over and rolls him against my back, before depositing him on the ground. While all this is happening, Jay is too dense to realize that not firing his wepon would be the safeist option for himself. So the entire time he was rolling over my wings and back, his weapon is firing off 10 paintballs every second. From the commotion behind me I can tell at least 4 of them hit him, whilst my quick brain speed allowed me to roll him in such a way that none of them hit me.

Latias is now no more than 2 meters from the edge of the treeline, and from there is no time at all for the pond. Her plan is so close to success, it's an absolute disappointment when Bianca runs out in front of her and fires off 3 expertly aimed shots at her.

Latias dodges the first one by diving close to the ground. But the next two were unavoidable due to her being crowded by trees on both sides, and they hit her both in the snout, one after the other.

Perhaps I'd have been able to tough it out, but Latias has a low pain threshold and being hit on the snout hurts an awfull lot.  
As a result, I see her back off from Bianca and look for another way to go - a task that will be next to impossible as our snouts are where our compasses, aura sensors and orientation stuff is, and it all will have been stunned by Bianca's shots.

She'll need assistance then. "SIS! OVER HERE!" I shout, giving her a clue as to where safety is. She hears me and turns to face me before setting off. It's a clear line of site flight path, and Latias reacts so well Bianca doesn't have time to figure it out what exactly is happening and get another shot in. What it does do, however, is show her exactly where I am, which is no more than 7 meters away.

Which is bad news for me, because when she does get her head together, I see her level the gun at me, take brief aim, and fire a single shot.

Latias could beat the paintball on the flat, no problem, paintballs are really quite slow. But the trees either side of her means she has to rotate around to stop her hitting them with her wings, plus she's still carrying the bag, and it's slowing her down. Not much, but enough.

I hear the 'pop' from the gun and see the yellow streak head towards me. If I don't move, it'll hit me in the chest. Luckily, I can move, and do, moving slightly to the right. I watch the paintball whizz past me, then look at Bianca, with a grin. She smiles back at me and turns the gun towards the fleeing Latias. Yet again she takes aim quickly, but this time fires off 6 shots in the space of a second. Quite how, I've no idea, but Latias now has 6 paintballs heading directly for her. I recon only 5 of them will hit her, unless she takes action to avoid them now.

"TO YOUR RIGHT!" I shout, but by the time I've said that the first paintball has hit her. She quickly reacts to fly higher, but gets hit by another two before dodging the rest. "AHHHH! OWOWOWOWOWWWW!" she cries as the volly hits her. Bianca punches the air befor ducking down out of my rapid sight.

I hear a noise to my right and realize the target I took down is starting . With the gun, he's still a threat. Without it, he's not. And since we could do with as little amount of threats as possible, I think the best corse of action is to remove the gun from him.

I check his fingers aren't in the way as Latias arrives where I am. We both duck low to make it difficult for Bianca to see us, before I begin the process of stealing the gun off Jay.

I psychic a grip on the gun, before starting to levitate it away from him and towards me. "HEY! No, Fair?" Jay starts to say. But then he opens his eyes, and sees me psychicly levitating the gun at him. "Really? Are you even allowed to do that?"

"Good question. Let's find out..." Is my fluent response, which I deliver in lati. I then test the theory that we're not allowed to steal his gun and shoot him with it, by shooting him with it and seeing what happens.

I psychicly search for the trigger, before controlling it to move towards me. This action fires the gun, and because I'm psychic holding it rock-solid in the air, the gun doesn't jump back. The first shot flies out of the gun and in less than a meter hits Jay square in the stomach, making him scream.

I forgot that this one fires off more than one each time you pull the trigger, so with a series of pops, yet more paintballs smash into him.

I must say, I am rather enjoying this. It's like th-

A smash of pain hits me in the left side, closely followed by a lot more. I loose concentration one the gun and it falls to the ground, the canister hitting him in the foot. The pain is so sudden and so unexpected I'm confused. I don't even turn to face the source, just float there and take it.

"DON'T"

Popping noise, Pain in the side.

"SHOOT"

Pop. Pain.

"MY"

Pop. Pain.

"BOYFRIEND!"

Several pops. Quite a lot of pain.

I realize that the reason I'm in pain is that someone is shooting me. That someone would be Jays girlfriend. And THAT would be Bianca.

As much as she's just physically hurt me, Bianca is incredibly kind and I would never hurt her. So instead of turning round and hydropumping her (I cant really do that with this mask on anyway), or picking up the gun and shooting her back, I flee. Latias is nowhere to be seen and must have flown away when she saw Bianca getting close. Without warning me. How kind.

I set off over Jay's yellow paint stained body, going as fast as possible for the first few meters to get out of Bianca's line of sight and henceforth avoid being shot. After a set of narrow trees I have to fly sideways through, I right myself and slow down to a stop, intending to search for Latias' aura. It's so powerful I can sense it over quite a large distance. Something tells me it's just to my left, so I rotate around that way. I'm expecting to sense Latias' aura right in front of me, and I do. What I also see, is a small, brown pokemon with a skull on it's head stood on the floor just in front of me. He's holding up the small pistol like Bianca showed him, and it's leveled right at my snout.

"Hey Latios. You've got a bit of paint on you. Care for some more?" He says, the inevitable smart line before he pulls the tigger.

I pull a trick so mean, Groudon himself would be proud. I quickly draw out my right arm, an action in itself so rapid that Cubone flinched a bit. I point to an imaginary point on the horizon behind a few trees. Cubone suspects a trick, and squints through one eye, presumably to get a full aim on me.

"Oh! Is that your mother?" I say in mock suprise. Cubone can't help but look, and spins his head around to the place I was pointing at.

The moment he turns away from me, I fly away quickly, drawing my arm back in as I do so. The rustling of leaves notifies Cubone of my departure and he realizes he's just been tricked. As I fly away into the distance, he shouts back at me. "OI! THAT'S JUST CRUEL! GET BACK HERE!"

I feel sorry for him, I really do. But he just fell for the oldest trick in the book.

I jet off through the trees, heading straight towards Latias' big bright aura. If it is where I think it is, she's directly over the main pond. Excelent...

I break out of tree cover past the rotating wind chimes which make a rattling noise as I fly past, and see her there, over the main pond. She's still got the bag with her and I wonder why she hasn't dumped it yet. She's not looking around like she's waiting, she's floating vertically and her neck is bent over towards her arm like she's inspecting the bag. I fly across to her without looking - it must be free of threats as she's not being attacked.

"Why haven't you dropped the bag yet?" I ask her the moment I'm close enough to speak quietly to avoid being heard by Bianca or the others.

"Why do you THINK?" She's staring at the bag on her arm, which she is furiously shaking. The bag, however, is not falling in the water. It's like the loop got shorter whilst it was on her arm. "The stupid thing is stuck on my arm!". She gives her arm another rapid shake, but the bag isn't going anywhere.

We both watch the bag as Latias changes orientation so she's back horizontal

"Well then hold still! Let me try!" I tell her, drawing out both my arms from my side. She holds her arm out at, well, arm's length, towards me. I see what's happened almost immediately. The straps have tightened at some point while she was holding it to make the loop smaller than the shielding on her arm.

Whilst I can tell what's happened, I can't do much about it. Whenever there's a problem like this Bianca normally solves it for us: Our claws are not spaced out enough like her fingers, and they are too small to do intricate tasks like loosening a strap on a bag. So I'm not exactly sure how this .

I can try psychicing it though, I guess. I try pulling apart the two halves of the loop either side of the buckle thing with my psychic, with mixed results.

By mixed results, I mean 'A snapping noise as the strap buckle breaks, but the bag is now free from Latias' arm'

The bag falls towards the water but then swings round as my psychic grip is still on the strap. I release it and the bag falls directly downwards, landing in the water with a 'splosh', before resurfacing and bobbing along the surface, out of human reach. So long as said human isn't prepared to swim.

"There we go" I say as we both watch the bag bob along the surface of the water. Latias changes orientation so she's back horizontal, before letting out a lati equivalent of a small "whoop"

"NOW, how are they going to shoot us if they don't have ammunition?" Latias chuckles to herself, holding up a paw for me to high-five. A habit she's got off Bianca. I tap the underside of my paw against the underide of hers, making a muffled 'tap' sound. When Bianca does it, it sounds louder, but anything involving hitting feathers isn't going to be the textbook definition of loud.

We both slide out arms back into our sides and turn towards the edge of the woods.

We're just in time to see Bianca, Cubone and Jay emerge from the woods, reloading their various wepons from metal cases they appear to have produced from their pockets. The moment Bianca finishes the series of hand movements required to reload her gun, she springs up in the air and does a forward roll towards me and Latias, stopping just short of the water's edge. She brings a knee up and rests the rifle on it, swinging the barell towards me, closing one eye presumably for aim.

Cubone and Jay are less professional, and fumble around with their ammunition, Jay worse than Cubone even though his fingers are more suited to tasks like reloading a gun. Both of them finish though, and level their guns at me and Latias respectively.

* * *

Latios is cornered! Will he somehow wrangle his way out of this sticky situation? Or will he find some way to escape, missing being painted bright fluorescent orange by a few millimeters? Or will he be painted more yellow than an asian construction worker at night?

Cliffhanger aside, could you do me a huge favor and click that review button down there? Perhaps check out a few of the scenes from here I've put on my deviantart (the names TheModerator. Google, it's well worth it!)?

Also, could someone tell me what sweatdropping is? I could use it in context, but I want to make sure before I do :)

Funny lesson just to remind you guys I'm human: Don't have a caffeine loaded double espresso to wake yourself up in the morning. Especially if you're only 7 stone and never had caffeine before. Especially Especially if your assessed piece of work on that day requires a steady hand to screw a jet engine part together. You will fail the assessment. For "Being unable to hold still enough". FML.

I could do with a pickup after that...  
Hey You Just Read this.  
And Jay is crazy.  
It's a cliff hanger.  
Follow me mabye?


	19. Chapter 19: Yellow

Just a heads-up: The sequal to this ("Home") will rival the works you see on fanfiction today. It's just that awesome. Not my words, my sister's. And she hates me. And it's in 3rd person, which is tonnes better in my opinion.

Also got to play with 2 million pounds of high-precision CNC (Computer that can build things, put simply). So what did I do? Made a set of Latios/Latias cufflinks. I'll take a pic as soon as they're assessed and given back :)

* * *

"Oopsie" Latias says, which sounds almost the same in Lati as it does in English.

'Oopsie' is right. Bianca is an excelent shot, it would take a miricle for her to miss from this distance. Even if she did, Cubone and Jay are just behind her, almost poised to shoot. Short of some freak of nature occuring, we are a few seconds away from becoming very yellow dragons. The paint will make us look like moving picasso's (Another reason I dont like art). Bianca is the first one to speak out of their group. "Well well well..." - Really Bianca? How cliche' - "You've cornered yourself. Not a very smart thing, hmm?"

Speaking of not very smart things, Jay occurs.

"DON'T WORRY! I GOT THIS!" He shouts, and starts running towards the edge of the water, for seemingly no reason. Bianca looks at Jay. Cubone looks at me. I look at Latias. Latias is staring at a leaf that happened to be flying past. "What is he doing?" I ask Latias, but the irrationality of Jay's actions have astounded even her. Or perhaps she was too busy watching the leaf.

Jay slings his gun via the strap over his shoulder while he runs, and accelerates to what I presume is his top speed. It doesn't look very fast. And if he carries on like that, he'll run straight into the lake. Bianca speaks up in a slightly irritatated voice. "Jay, what on earth are y-"

"GRAHHHHHH!" Jay shouts as he reaches the water's edge and jumps forwards. Me and Latias realize his plan with absolute bemusement. He's jumped over the water with what I presume is the intention of grabbing hold of one of us. Proberbly me as I'm closest. It's not a particularly smart plan, but then again this isn't a particularly smart human being.

He looks like he's going to reach my neck and be able to grab ahold though, which I want to avoid. Behind his masked face, I can see that Jay is smiling, thinking he's going to be able to reach me. To solve this, I fly 30 centimeters backwards, out of Jay's reach.

The transition between triumph to horror on Jay's face is comical. As he reaches the highest part of his jump, he realizes that he's no longer going to reach me, and starts falling downwards, directly towards the water.

Bianca manages to facepalm even before Jay hits the water with a collosal SPLASH! I'm confused by the sheer imensity of the splash until I realize quite a lot of Jay's weight is his ego.

I fly down to the point where he's about to resurface. Bianca is too stunned by Jay's stupidity to do anything, and Cubone is too busy laughing to hold the gun straight. So when Jay resurfaces, I decide to put a smile on my face, move close up to his, and taunt him. "Looking a bit damp there, Jay-o.".

Jay can tell from my body language as I say this that I'm being condescending. He slings the gun from over his shoulder as he struggles to stay afloat. If it was anyone else I'd put a bit of my psychic in to help them float, but it's Jay i'm dealing with here, and that ain't going to happen.

"I can still shoot you" He says with a dead serious look on his face, and he brings the gun around so its pointing directly at my snout. If that paintball were to hit me, it would hurt a lot. But it's not going to, because of a very complicated reason that Jay will regret not knowing.

Bianca tries to warn him, and shouts out, but it's too late. Jay pulls the trigger, and instead of a paintball smacking me square on the snout, the ejection phrase of the gun shoots out a burst of paint directly in JAY's face, blinding him and probably stinging quite a bit in the process.

Karma. She's a total bi-

"Wow he's stupid" Latias manages to work in inbetween Jay's screaming fit.

What Jay didn't know, was that when the paint balls are immersed in water, they expand. So when he pulled the trigger to release some compressed gas that was meant to fire the paintball, the paintball instead stayed lodged in the chamber. So when the pressure in the chamber built up to dangerous levels, the safety cut in and ejected the entire contents of the chamber, I.e. a load of paint. Because it was pressurised though, instead of leaking out, it was shot out, the net result being Jay's mask covered in yellow paint.

Jay's head goes under the surface of the water and then bobs back up again, his mask minus the water-solubale paint. He starts coughing and scrabbling around in the air, like he's trying to grab hold of something. I fly back up Latias' height, just out of his reach: He'd just pull my feathers out knowing him. "WHY THE HELL?" He manages to shout after he's finished clearing his lungs of half the lake.

Bianca shakes her head. "You really are stupid aren't you Jay?" She says, like she's only just realized. "But Latios, that wasn't very nice, was it?". I'd argue with her, but she's the one holding the gun. She winks at me.

It isn't a 'let's you and me share a private wink' kind of wink. It's a 'I'm going to paint you so yellow, you'll glow in the dark' kind of wink.

Without a pause, she starts drumming two of her fingers on the gun's trigger, letting off a rapid volly of shots in a very short time, all at me, until the gun just makes hollow 'put' noise which means she's out of usable ammunition.

I thourght the game was over the moment Jay fell in the water, so her firing at me seems a bit like cheating. And if she can cheat, Why can't I? In the milliseconds before the paintballs hit, I throw up a protect around myself. The air around me turns a transparent kind of green, and I psychicly add a bouncy quality to it, so the paintballs won't splat, they''ll bounce.

Which they do, the majority bouncing off and hitting Jay, where they smash against his mask with a series of cracking noises. By the time he's dived under the water to dodge them, the barrage is all but over. Bianca slaps her forehead as she realizes what her paintballs have actually hit:

"You can't make me shoot my own BOYFRIEND!". Cubone walks over to her from behind and pats her back in mock sympathy. Because Bianca is almost sat down, Cubone is only 25cm away from being as tall as her. "He deserved it" Cubone says, but Bianca doesn't understand him. "Thanks Cubone" she says, unaware he was being insulting. Cubone just smirks.

I decide to wind Bianca up by keeping the protect up and flying over to her. She can't shoot me, and I plan on doing this until she tells me I've won. After all, I think Jay is the one who's been shot the most, and he's on their team! I beam my plan across to Latias, who coos in agreement and puts up a shimmering green shield around herself as well, before flying just infront of Bianca, who notices the change in lighting and looks up to see me and Latias side by side, protected, and staring down with our masks on. Cubone has been watching the entire time, so I'm slightly suprised when he draws the pistol he still has and points it at Latias. Out of habit, I'm about to fly in front of her until I remeber she has the protect. But I'm still nervous as the paintball heads towards her. I needent be, as it just hits the shield with a crackling noise.

Cubone looks slightly suprised as a hissing noise comes from the protect as Latias psychicly boils the paint, clearly not a fan of making it bounce.

Cubone fires off the rest of his clip, but to no avail. Protect is meant to be used against hyperbeams and other powerful attacks, so the paintballs have next to no effect. Latias isn't even straining.

Cubone makes an observation. "How come it bounces off Latios' but it fizzles at Latias'?" Neither us answer that question - even though we could - because we're too busy looking menacing at Bianca and waiting for her to submit.

"Okay!" She sighs with a resigned sigh once she realizes we're not moving. "You guys win." and she ripps off her mask, signaling her submission and the end of the game. Me and Latias put down the Protects and fly lower to the ground so she can take our masks off. She does Latias' first, who thanks her by rubbing the side of her face against Bianca's. She reaches across and behind my head, smiling at me the entire time until she lifts the mask off my snout, with a "There we go, much better, eh?". It is. I respond by copying Latias' method of rubbing the side of my face against her's.

She starts giggling, but the whole mood is ruined by splashing noise behind. Bianca tries to look over my wing and I fly around so both of us can see. It's Jay, pulling himself out of the pond. Actually, It's not really a pond, more like a lake. I change my mind about this on a weekly basis, but I'm pretty sure it's a lake, not a pond. Either way, Jay is emerging from it considerably more damp than before he'd jumped in.

He puts his other hand over the side and pulls himself up and over the waters edge, water streaming off him the entire time. Due to my wide field of vision, I can see to my left that, Bianca puts a hand over her mouth, I think the emotion is shock.

"JAY! You're absolutely soaking!" she shreiks, hand still over her mouth. "No kidding!" He shouts back, an unmistakable tone of utter distaste for his current situation.

Latias and Cubone have gone off to the side and are both doing some kind of game between the two of them involving gestures a bit off to my right, so Bianca calls on me.

"Latios, could you just dry Jay off for me?" She asks, standing up and rubbing my back as she does. I'm about to object, so I'm plesently suprised when Jay is the one backing off. "NO! NO WAY! You are so NOT using any of your dragony stuff on me!" He replies. Good point, I was just going to psychicly repel the water off him, but using dragon breath on him would be so much more easier. And we could have roast Jay for dinner...

"No, Jay, it's not 'Dragony' stuff. Psychic" Bianca says in a matter-of-factly voice. "Well then that's MUCH better" Jay sarcastically quips back, clearly still not happy with the idea.

Bianca pats me on the head and tells me to psychic him anyways.

Jay hears and starts stepping backwards, all the time telling me NOT to psychic him. Like I'd take orders from him. I float a tad closer to him, and he flinches as I identify all the water molecules on the outside of him, and propel them away from him. Obviosly it's more complex than that, removing too much water will make his clothes behave like cardboard, and Bianca won't want me moving the water inside him because that would kill him. Bianca's prefrence. Not mine.

I fly backwards so I'm next to Bianca who gives me a scratch behind the ear by way of saying thanks. Jay realizes all the water he would have had to dry off himself has gone, I can tell by the look on his face, he looks really suprised.

Being Jay, he doesn't feel the need to thank me, a lowly pokemon, and instead walks over to Bianca at my left. "Cool. Awww look at those two". He points to Latias and Cubone.

Cubone is looking up at Latias, who is cooing all kinds of noises. She keeps tapping her snout with her paw, then doing a backflip. She's doing that over and over, and on the 3rd time, Cubone speaks up, underlining the word with his bone as he says it. "Pinocchio?".

He doesn't actually say Pinocchio in poke-speak, since it's a human-made word and there isn't a pokemon word for it.

Latias stops repeating the pattern and looks at him, her wings up with her tail section curved almost underneath her. As well as never staying still, she never stays dead straight either, she always hovers with some sort of curve.

"Nooooo!" She squeals at him. "Not Pinocchio! Try again!".

I turn back to Bianca to see her and Jay 'French Kissing'. They are stood sideways on, so neither can see that I've turned back around to look at them. They look pretty into it, but I can't tell if it's the kind of thing I said they couldn't do, or weather it's still inside the 'safe zone'. I give Bianca the benefit of the doubt and turn around like I saw nothing.

Latias and Cubone have moved onto a different round of the game, and Latias is the one who's guessing now. Cubone brings round the bone, chopps the air with it three times, jumps, kicks an imaginary object while spinning, then landing on two feet with one hand on the ground.

This one is easy. "Samuri" Latias says, and Cubone claps a little.

Bianca must have finished her 'interaction' with Jay, because she yells over to Latias and Cubone. "You lot! Let's go inside for some lunch!".

Lunch sounds like a good idea. Because it's a Sunday, it'll be 'Sunday Dinner' which is always some kind of meat, potatoes, carrots and something called a 'Yorkshire Pudding', which is essentially a burnt pancake shaped like a bowl. Lorenzo is a master of cooking, even if he'd not be the first to admit it.

Latias knows it's Sunday dinner too, because she hurridly lets Cubone walk onto her back by lowering her neck, before setting off in the direction of the house. I follow after her, there is no way she's going to beat me to the table.

I catch up with her soon enough, just before the archway. She's going moderately slow, not wanting Cubone to fall off, obviously. The archway is really only wide enough for one of us to go through at a time, so I accelerate past her, missing the ornate stone side of the arch with centimeters to spare.

"HEY!" Latias shouts after me, clearly not pleased with the whole cut-off idea. "I want my lunch, not to be held up by you and cuboid" I shout back, letting a bit of laughter creep into my voice. Latias is trying to get past, but I'm deliberately moving infront of her. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" I shout at her, imitating a bearded man on one of Lorenzo's favorite films. It bounces off the arch's walls and makes it sound ten times better. "Right then!" Latias snaps back.

Perhaps I was being a bit stupid getting between Latias and food - She treats any food that could be hers with the same regard that most legendaries would reserve for their offspring. Because the next thing I know, I can hear her charging some kind of attack. My protect is still recharging, and there's no room to dodge either. Clearly the only evasive action I can make to avid this attack is raw speed.

I accelerate as quickly as I can, as an almighty 'BANG' noise comes from behind me. By the sounds of it, it's a hyper beam.

That WOULD hurt if it hit me, so I try my best to avoid it. It's getting closer though, even though I'm almost at Mach 1. The air can't get out of the way fast enough though, and I max out at just below the speed of sound.

Which is slower than the impending hyper beam.

The light around the arch starts to get brighter as the beam gets closer. I'm almost at the exit, though I know that I'm not going to make it. I'm as aerodynamic as possible, but the air is to compressed for me to plough through it any faster. No more than a meter from the exit, the Hyper Beam smashes into my rear, giving me not just a burst of unneded momentum, but also a burst of pain that makes all my joints stun and lock up.

The momentum pushes me into the ceiling of the arch, though I narrowly avoid smashing my snout and instead my neck scrapes along the stone surface, the only thing that's stopping my skin ripping open being my highly resilient feathers.

That isn't to say it isn't painfull. I cry out as the Hyper Beam reaches my main body, spontaniously triggering every last nerve ending. To add insult to injury, some of my psychic power is sapped by the attack, which gives temporary effects of depression. So it's absolutely crushing when Cubone and Latias shoot past, with a barely audable "BULLS EYE!" from Cubone over Latias' squealing. They fly under me seconds before gravity takes hold and I hit the floor with a soft thud, most parts of my body in all kinds of pain.

After wating a few seconds to let the roaring pain from my torso calm down, I hover back up, albeit somewhat unsteadily. I'd exact my revenge on her now if it wasn't for the fact that it would probably delay dinner. So I console myself by flying slower to the back door of the house, which Latias has closed after herself.

I'm too sapped to psychic the handle, and through the window I can see Lorenzo preparing something on the sideboard. Since knocking on the door is really quite difficult when you don't have hands, I settle with smashing my forehead against it a few times. Lorenzo doesn't appear to have noticed.

"THE DOOR!" I shout in an effort to make him hear. He continues, completely unaware. "LORENZO! OPEN THE DOOR!". He won't understand what I'm saying, of course. But the deaf bat should be able to hear me at least.

"LOR. EN. ZO. DOOR!".

Bianca's voice pipes up behind me. "Latios! Stop shouting. You won't get to dinner any quicker."

She leans forward and opens the door, pushing it forward and letting me in in the process. I fly through and Lorenzo turns around. "Latios! If you wanted to come in, you could have just knocked instead of waiting for Bianca!"

I'm beyond fustrated with this situation, and decide the best thing to do would be to just drop it, which I do. I concentrate on the smell of dinner, which is delicious as always. Lorenzo has been cooking for years and his experience always shows. The smell almost has me drooling.

"When's dinner?" Bianca asks as Jay meanders into the kitchen.

Lorenzo turns to face her. "About 2 more minutes, are we having it in front of the TV?". Bianca gives a wave of the hand and an "er... yeah!" by way of response.

Normally, we'd eat around a table. But as of late Latias has grown a bit and with an extra guest - Jay - the table's gotten too small. So we just sit with trays on our knees on the sofas in the living room.

"Bianca, could you ask Latias how she'll be having hers?" Lorenzo asks as he turns back round to a metal pot with steam coming out.

Bianca walks out of the room to find Latias, Jay stays near the door.

Because Latias is able to form a human shape, she can either have her food like me, on the floor from a bowl, or like the rest of the humans, with a knife and fork on a tray, as well as being cooked, or pokemon food, or any range of combinations.

"Can I help?" I ask Lorenzo and hover over the centre table. I don't like cooking, but Lorenzo always makes interesting conversation if you help him cook.

"Sure, here, try this carrot" He replies, thinking I asked if I could try some food. I'm not going to complain.

He turns around with a fork in his hand with a round orange circle impaled on the end. Normally, I prefer all of my food raw. Cooking it heats out some of the nutriants that we need, and also affects the taste. The texure, however, is better if it's cooked. I don't really care much for texture, but apparently for humans, it makes up about 30% of the perceived 'taste'. Carrots, for example. They can be too solid, or 'aldente', which can damage human teeth in the long run. Or they can be too mushy, which makes the taste seem more 'stale'. To humans.

"Open Wide!" Lorenzo says, like when he was feeding Bianca baby food 14 years ago. I open my mouth and Lorenzo places the carrot inside.

This carrot tastes okay, considering it's had half the goodness steamed out of it. The texture is good too. It's a bit on the mushy side I'd say, but then I can't account for all the human's personal preferences.

"It's good!" I say as I swallow and nod my head. Lorenzo gives a knowing nod and turns back around to the cooking.

Bianca walks back in the room, I hear her footsteps and turn back around, making sure not to knock anything over with my wings or fins.

"Latias says she'll be sitting like us, but she still wants raw." She reports, which prompts a chuckle from Lorenzo and a confused look from Jay.

"Wants raw? What?" He asks, which extends Lorenzo's chuckle. He stops and explains to Jay. Unlike me, Lorenzo hasn't seen Jay's bad side and thinks he's the grandson he never had. Much to my own irritation.

"Latias and Latios aren't pets, Jay." Damn Right!

"They're predatory animals, and are tuned to eat and enjoy fresh, raw meat. Cooking the meat we give them gets rid of some of the essentials, so they eat raw meat most of the time.". He turns again and looks at Bianca. "Didn't latias go through that phase of eating every Ratatta that came near the house?". Bianca giggles as a response.

Jay screws up his face, like the prospect of us eating raw meat somehow disgusts him, even though he's not the one eating it.

"They've got really sharp teeth for a reason" Bianca points out. To emphasize her point, I flash Jay a toothy grin, which makes him step back a pace. Lorenzo must have seen this, because he starts teasing Jay.

"We haven't fed them raw meat for a good 2 days now. Any longer and he might have just nipped off one of your limbs as a put-me-on."

Jay must know that Lorenzo is kidding. The fish yesterday counted as raw meat, plus I'd never do something that would upset Bianca. And yet he still looks unsure.

"Riiiiight..." is the only thing he says on that matter.

After a clattering of pots behind me, Lorenzo announces that "Dinner is ready!"

Bianca tells me she'll bring my food in for me and that I can take my normal spot in the living room. Either she's not seen the bright splatter of paint down my side, or she doen't care enough to tell me to clean it before dinner. I do as she says and fly out of the room, through the corridor and into the lounge. Latias is sat on the sofa facing the TV, disguised as Bianca, tray already on her lap.

I fly over to my spot on the piano and lower myself down so my wings are spread out and resting. Just as i'm settled, Latias telepaths over to me.

"Ha, Ha, Hyperbeam!" the cheerful voice in my head announces, a meme in the pokemon community about a garydos that laughs so hard it hyper beams it's trainer.

I decide to ignore her taunting and ask "Where's Cubone?" instead. I don't want the little guy to miss out on dinner.

"He's getting his tray" She says. She must have already introduced him to Lorenzo.

Just as I finish that thourght, the pokemon himself walks in the room, holding a tray almost as tall as himself. He walks over to the sofa and does a surprisingly large jump, landing just next to Latias. He turns around and puts his back against the back of the sofa, with his tail away from Latias. He sits down and places his tray on his 'knees', though it extends way out beyond where his feet finish.

At that point, Jay walks in the room. He is also holding a tray, and goes to sit on the sofa Latias isn't occupying. Shortly after him, Bianca, carrying two plates, one large, one small, both so hot they're still steaming. She puts the large plate down on Latias' tray, and the smaller one on Cubone's. She looks apologetically at Cubone. "We don't know exactly what you're supposed to eat, so we didn't want to give you anything raw or too much. We'll get some guides from the pokemon centre when we can."

"That's okay, Bianca. I've never even had food like this before anyway!" He says back, a meaningless series of noises to Bianca's ears.

She's turning around to go back into the kitchen, and I still haven't got my food. I do a small yelp and low coo, like I'm crying. Just so she doesn't forget my food.

"Don't worry Latios. You're next..." She says passively. Jay tries a terrible imitation of my noise and receives a slightly harsher response.

"Yeah. You too." And she disappears through the doorway.


	20. Chapter 20: Lunch

So I just learnt that all the professors in pokemon are named after trees: Prof. Oak, Birch, Maple etc...  
Wait... Isn't Ash also a type of tree? Does that mean that, when the pokemon series ends (which I doubt it ever will), Ash will become a pokemon professor?

Review response: An7 - Oh yes it's a sequal. Based upon a mathmatical analysis of popular fanficitons and published books to get the perfect contents for the audience. Romantic tension, Action, Relationships, (Perhaps even a guest lemon.), Questionable Actions, Slight Surrealism and Loss. And BOY is it good... *manic laugh*

Seriously, compared to the new story, this one is like a half-baked beta that was made by someone with one hand.

To the other people reading: An7 is lonely. Help him in populating the reviews!

* * *

I glare at Jay for copying my noise, but he isn't looking at me, he's looking at Latias.

Manners aren't really a concept that pokemon generally have to follow: 'Please' and 'Thank you' have rarely helped a species survive. But because Latias and I have been 'house trained' (which amounts to a human slapping our snouts if we do something wrong), Latias is waiting until everyone else has got their meal before starting.

Cubone doesn't share the same ethic, a

starts tearing into the meal, until he realizes that Latias isnt eating. Some sort of telepathic communication takes place, and Cub

one says "sorry" outloud before putting his knife and fork back on the tray. Jay just looks confused.

Bianca walks in with two large plates. One is totally flat, the other has curved up edges. The first one is Jay's, and Bianca places the plate on his tray. "Thanks babe, this looks ace!" He exclaims. I wish he'd stop calling her babe.

Bianca gives him a peck on the cheek and then walks over to me with my food. It certainly smells nice. The bowl/plate is different from everyone elses in that it has the edges curved up to stop the food from spilling out when I put my snout in it. When she places it just infront of my snout, It's all I can do to not tuck right in.

I've got a slightly bigger portion than Latias, and she's noticed this and is scowling at my plate, though I don't see why. I'm bigger, I need more food. Jay is looking at his own plate, though I can't see what the look on his face is. His portion is a tiny bit smaller than Latias'.

The meat that the humans are having is roast marr', which is the nickname for roasted Mareep. Me and Latias have just plain uncooked Mareep.

"I'd have preferred catching it myself" Latias telepaths over to me. I agree with her, to some extent. On one hand, having it killed by a butcher is convenient because Bianca doesn't scream when you bring it in the house. But on the other hand, it's not as fresh like this, and at the end of the day it doesn't amount up to the same "I caught this" feeling when you're actually eating it...

Bianca and Lorenzo walk in, Bianca first, then Lorenzo, both holding their own trays with plates on. Bianca goes to sit down on the sofa next to Jay, while Lorenzo opts to sit next to Cubone, taking a step to the left from the doorway and sitting right down on the sofa. Lorenzo has seen a lot of things in his life, so he doesn't even blink at the fact that this diminutive pokemon is wearing a skull on the outside of it's head.

Two things link themselves together in my mind.

If I were going hunting for a pokemon like Cubone, I'd probably see it's head first. And so that's probably where I'd pick it up with my teeth from. But I wouldn't be able to do that with Cubone because to get a grip on it's head I'd have to bite through that skull he's wearing as a helmet.

Which begs the questions:  
Are Cubones something I should consider as pray? (Henceforth how tastey are they?)  
And do Cubones wear the skulls because they need to to prevent being prayed on? If so, why do their mothers always die after the Cubone is born? Is it a complete coincidence that in their death they quite possibly save their young?

I think I've hit upon a major theme in Cubone's life, but Lorenzo ruins this moment of realization by shouting at me.

"LATIOS!" Then he calms down. "You're covered in paint!"

Uh, duh? That's kind of obvious as we've been playing PAINTball.

"And?"

"Next time, please don't lie down on the piano when you're covered in paint. Please?"

He's got a point. The piano top is cushened with a very nice feeling and looking material. The paint is water-soluble, so it isn't difficult to wash off, but it's BRIGHT yellow and looks terrible on the black piano.

"Oh, sorry. I'll wash myself next time..."

There's a moment of silence as the humans try and figure out what I actually said. I think Lorenzo gives up, though, because he sits down and tells everyone to "tuck in!". Which we do.

I duck down into my bowl and choose to have a bite of meat first. It's had most of the blood drained off it, but there is still some there and the rich iron-y taste is still quite strong. I've not even bitten down on the piece yet, but when I do my sharp dragon teeth make short work of it.

Latias, meanwhile, has impaled the entire slab of raw meat on her fork and tries to take a bite. She's only got human teeth though, and it has all the effect of Bianca chewing on a piece of rubber.

Latias goes a bit instinctive and shakes her head left and right really rapidly, like she's caught it and is just stunning it. Of course, this ones already dead and her imitation human teeth can only be so good at cutting. To everyone else, it looks like the beret-less Bianca is having a sizure. "LATIAS! If you're going to eat in my form, behave like me. Cut it with the knife." Bianca shouts, making Latias stop.

Latias spits the chop back onto the plate and twists her face to look irritated at the long-dead mareep. All her efforts have done is squeeze some of the blood out of it.

Lorenzo has learnt some of our ways and clicks his tounge, getting Latias' attention. She looks at him and he indicates correct usage of the eating utensils, taking his knife and - using his fork to keep the meat still - draws it across, making a neat cut in it which he then stabs with the fork and places in his mouth. He nods his head and Latias tries to copy him.

She stabs at the meat with her fork, but messes up even this simple action. The fork slides off. It also manages to take half the contents of the plate and make them slide off the plate and onto the floor.

Simultaneous groans from Bianca and Lorenzo, A facepalm from Jay and a passive stare from Cubone, who is too busy cramming his mouth to really care. I don't blame him if all he's had so far is canned Cubone food, which is the most likely thing.

"I got this!" Latias telepaths to everyone.

This happens every time Latias has any kind of raw meat while in Bianca's form. She'll wrestle it with blunt teeth, spit it out, try using cutlery and fail, then turn into her origional form and eat it off wherever it landed when the cutlery failed, which is more often than not the floor.

So only Jay is suprised when Latias transformes back into herself and lies down on the floor just in between the coffie table and the sofa where Lorenzo and Cubone are still sat. Her wings don't fit in the space, so she pulls them right behind her in order to fit.

She ducks down and again starts chewing at the meat, this time with a lot more sucess, even if she is still shaking it from side to side when she picks it up.

"So, Bianca, what he you lot been doing so far today" Lorenzo asks in a completely innocent mannor. He doesn't know we were planning his party. I don't think.

"We played paintball, that was good". Lorenzo smiles. "And by 'we' you mean 'Me and Jay' and by 'played paintball' you mean 'Shot at Latios'". He's smiling because he knows I enjoy it really.

Jay buts in, having just swallowed a piece of potato whole. "No, they shot me too!". Lorenzo nods and chuckles, "Yes, you've still got some paint in your hair. How did you manage to let them do that, Jay?". Lorenzo turns and winks at me. He clearly appoves of my actions.

"Ugh, don't you start. In case you haven't noticed, they can steal stuff off you just by THINKING about it!" Jay says in an incredulous voice.

Lorenzo chuckles some more. "Well that's psychic types for you. You haven't got any paint on your clothes though, so I guess they gave them a wash?"

"No. The gave ME a wash. While I was wearing the clothes. I think they've done a very good job though... Have you considered opening a laundrette?"

This was one of the many things that irritates me about Jay. Around us, he's a total arse. But the moment Lorenzo is anywhere near, he manages to make almost polite conversation. So Lorenzo never sees the real Jay.

Bianca speaks with a mouthful of carrot. "Hey, you could call it the 'Lati Laundrette'!"

Half hearted laughs all round.

"Hmmm... And where does this little guy come in then?" Lorenzo nods in Cubone's general direction.

"Oh!" Bianca can't say we picked him up going to tonies, since we weren't meant to go without Lorenzo, and because we went to order his cake.

"Oh yeah" Bianca repeats. "Latios found him wandering around the town when he was doing his check. He's just run away from his owner..."

Lorenzo frowns a bit, and I realize it's actually been two days since I've done one of my OCD flyovers of Alto Mare to check for any trouble. It's part of the legend I'm a part of, and if I'm going to exist, I might as well live up to the hype.

"I don't really thi-" Lorenzo is interrupted by a psychic message from Latias, who is still tucking into her floor food. And he can't even have a go at her for talking with her mouth full. I can 'hear' her protest too, telepathically sensitive as I am.

"Her owner was RUBBISH! She didn't treat him very well, and she didn't want him back anyway!"

Bianca and Jay have no idea that Latias is even saying anything, So Lorenzo says her name at the start of his sentence to let them know the score.

"Latias, I see your point, but what Latios should have really done is taken him back to her first"

Silence. Bearing in mind none of what has been said is actually true, I can't really pose any objections. But it's clear no-one wants Cubone to leave.

Eventually, Lorenzo realizes that his action might lower his popularity somewhat. "Oh. Okay. He can stay. He is cute, I guess"

Bianca and Jay high-five each other, Latias does a little happy coo even though shes still eating, and Cubone continues eating his meal. I think he didn't even hear us talking about him, to be honest.

"So, how was your night?" Bianca says, between two mouthfulls of roasted marrep.

"Oh it was great!..."

Lorenzo starts telling us about the whole 'Him getting a job at the TV studio' and his trip out to the pub/bar afterwards with the station manager.

I concentrate on my food. I've finished the meat, it was okay. I start on the potatoes. I'm glad that their not mashed: Sure, the butter adds a bit more taste. But without a spoon, it's just unorganisable mush that ends up around your mouth. Which your sister then insists licking off for you.

"Well, I was hardly going to say no to a round of complimentary sandwiches, so..."

Lorenzo natters on in his story, apparently just reaching the bit about him meeting his agent. I have just reached the last of my meal, the carrots. I'm not a huge fan of carrots, or any vegetable really. Berries are where it's at. Though I suppose a few vegetables have their charms.

Cubone has finished his meal and is looking up at Lorenzo, clearly quite enthralled by the story. Or his voice. Lorenzo has a very present voice. Latias finishes eating the food off the floor, does a crying sound, Lorenzo reaches over and puts her plate with some food still left on it on the floor in front of her, and she continues to eat, resuming her happy little noises as she does.

I finish my food around the same time as Lorenzo finishes his story. He's been shovelling in mouthfulls between sentences, but he still has more to eat and when he eventually falls silent, he starts eating his food.

Jay is staring at Latias eating her food off the floor, even though she's slightly obstructed by the table from his point of view. I want to know why he's staring at her, there are lots of other interesting things in the room to looks at. "Why you staring at Latias?" I ask him outloud.

He shakes his head and looks at me. He wouldn't have understood the question, but the context is pretty obvious. "Oh, sorry. Latias just reminded me of a vacuum cleaner"

Bianca laughs. "Ha Ha, your probably right. We haven't used the vaccum since..." Her sentence trails off and she looks up like she's thinking.

"2001" Lorenzo says, remembering the year better than Bianca. He also remebers the event. "I was when Latios was throwing up because we gave him some white chocolate."

Around the time Bianca's mum was around, I had a taste of some chocolate, except it was white and a lot creamier. Long story short, a specific ingredient in white chocolate is poisonous to a particular legendary dragons. We told Tony the ice cream man to make sure that it wasn't included in any of his recipies.

Jay looks suprised and looks away from Bianca and back to me. "So you can eat raw meat with the blood still dripping off it, but you can't have chocolate!?"

I already wish Lorenzo hadn't mentioned it. Jay is going to mention it at every opportunity, just to satisfy his own sense of self-superiority.

But I can't deny it, so I nod.

Jay lets out a small laugh. "Ha, chocolate. Who'd have thourght?"

Everyone continues with their meal. Cubone is alternating between looking at Latias, and looking at Bianca. I wonder what he's thinking: Of course, I could read his mind and find out, but it's not worth the effort.

Bianca finishes her meal and leans back, streaching her arms like eating the food was an intensive workout and she's now doing her streaches. "Mmmm Lorenzo. Wonderful as always, you should be a chef!"

Lorenzo shakes his head at the thourght, and Bianca continues.

"Anyway, I'm going to go out with friends when you lot have finished, so-" But she doesn't get to finish her sentence because Latias flies up - narrowly missing the light fixture - and flies so her face is barely 5cm from Bianca's

"OH! OH! TAKE ME! ME! I WANT TO GO! Please?"

Whenever Bianca goes out with friends, Latias almost always wants to tag along, in human form of course. I don't know for what reason, but I would hazard a guess it's either 1) gossip 2) boasting about her shiny coat or 3) shopping.

"Eh... Well, I was kind of thinking of introducing them to Cubone..."

Cubone looks up at the mention of his name. "What?".

"That is, if you want to, Cubone. Go out and meet my friends?" Bianca replies, as she pushes Latias away with the palm on her hand, which pushes all of Latias' body go backwards, making Latias also do a little disappointed noise at the same time.

"Oh, oh... Er... Okay!" Cubone says, coupling this with a nod so Bianca understands what he's saying.

"Awesome, my friends'll love you!" Bianca exclaims in a genuinely happy voice. I for one don't see how turning up with something wearing its dead mother's body parts will win her friends, but if she thinks so...

This means, I realize, that I'll be left with Latias. Joy of joys.

"I guess I probably need to get back to my family too, they'll be missing me" Jay says with a ridiculously cheesy grin at Bianca. So at least he'll be gone.

Which leaves Lorenzo. He's just put his cutlery to one side, having finished his meal. "I think..." He stops to dab some gravy from his cheek.

"I think I'll stay here and give those two" - He glares at me and Latias - "A much needed bath."

Latias beats me to object first. "Actually, I was planning on having a shower".

I wish she'd stop it with this shower nonsense, I mean, Will she even fit in the shower?

Lorenzo shakes his head at her "You're having a bath. With soap. End. Of". Of course, Lorenzo thinks she's objectIng to a wash outright, not just suggesting an alternative method. My heart sinks at the mention of soap, though. It gets in your eyes and stings, then up your snout and stings more. Plus it's just embarrassing. I mean, I'M MADE OF FEATHERS! There really is no need for a 'shining comb', even one that's designed for feathers.

"Well I'm having a shower!" Latias cries in her stroppy dragon voice that Lorenzo is much accustomed to.

"Bath."  
"Shower."

Bianca mutters into the palm she's just rested her face on. "Every single time". Jay just does an arrogant smirk.

"Bath."  
"Shower!"  
"BATH."  
"SHOWER!"

Latias' last shout is so loud, Lorenzo considers giving up. Note the word 'considers'.

"You, young little dragon. Are having. A bath." This voice is quiet, and is the exact same one me and Latias were spoken to with when we were new to the world. Its patronising and sweet at the same time.

Lorenzo's grandmother used to sing Latias a song when she was trying to get to sleep in that same tone. "Soft skitty, warm skitty, little ball of fur...  
Soft skitty, cute kitty, purr purr purrloin..."

The song was nice, but lost it's value when Latias got her first kill a few days later. Which was a skitty. That was no more than 6 months old. Much to granny Lorenzo's horror, Latias decided to show it off to her and THEN eat it, instead of eating it where she'd caught it. That earned her one of the biggest snout-slapps ever.

Both of us have refrained - since there on out - from bringing back the stuff we plan on eating. Especially if it's bleeding. Well, unless it's really impressive. Some people handle the carcases better than others.

Back to the situation at hand, Latias and Lorenzo are now having a staring competition. All I can say is, it's a good job Latias has yet to learn Mean Look.

Due to Latias short attention span, she gives up before Lorenzo. "Fine. Whatever"

Lorenzo can tell by the sulky voice that he's won. He gets up with his plate in one hand and extends the over hand out to Bianca, reaching for her plate. "Ha! You can go meet your friends Bianca, I'll wash up."

Bianca hands him her plate and gets up, looking at Cubone, who looks right back at her. "Come on then!". He jumps off the sofa and onto the floor, following Bianca out of the room.

While that was happening, Lorenzo had collected Jay's plate and he'd thanked him for the meal. "No problem, Any time"  
"Anyway, I better be going!" Jay excuses himself and leaves the room too, just behind Lorenzo.

Latias turns and looks at me. "I don't care what he says. I'm having a shower."

Sometimes I wonder If I forgot to teach her the definition of 'no'. She certainly is stubborn. "You don't NEED a shower! We've got a pond and all that's going to happen if you have a shower is that Lorenzo will give you another wash afterwards."

"Well..." She trails off her sentence, clearly still undecided on the correct option. Without another word, she flies out of the room.

Well, with nothing else to do, I decide to go to my room. I say my room. Me and Latias share it, even if we've out-grown it a bit.

I levitate up from the piano and draw my wings up in a V shape in order to get through the doorway, which I do. The hallway is empty, so Bianca and Jay have both gone, and Latias has also gone off to wherever she was going. I fly round and up the starcase onto the landing. To my right is the toilet, to the left of that the bathroom, then the guest room. On the wall facing me are the door going into Bianca's room and another one that goes into Lorenzo's room. Finally, to my right, the door into mine and Latias' room. It's open, so I just fly through into the room.

This room is different to all the others in the house. Whereas the color scheme in the rest of the house is old-style and dull (In a nice way), the scheme here is bright and fresh. The wallpaper looks like a Togapi shell, with various blue and red triangles randomly spread around it (There is the theory that Lati's and Togapi's are possibly related in some way). Most of the room is floor space, since we take up quite a lot of room. All the floor space is taken up by bean bags and cushens, which are infinately more confortable to lie on than the thin carpet underneath them.

This is where we sleep if it's too cold outside, but it's also for naps and if Bianca wants to teach us something. Like how to read. So there is also shelves screwed into the wall at human head hight. Some have books in, but the majority are filled with various pokemon models or plush toys. Quite a few have tufts of stuffing falling out of them where Latias has grabbed them off the shelf with her mouth so Bianca will play with them with her.

Since one side of me has paint on it, I float with the paint-free side downwards before lowering myself onto a beanbag in the middle of the room. I lay down on the bag, which is really quite comfortable.

I don't actually remeber why I came up here. But now I am, I just lie down and think.

What will Bianca do about Jay? Might he be an Okay choice after all? Will I have to watch them grow up and have children?

I realize that, at some point, I'll have to have offspring too if the Lati's want to stay a species. That would be nice. A son. And a daughter.

I've never met my father - of course - but I've seen enough pokemon families to know what looking after offspring involves: Congratulating the son on his first kill. Stopping the daughter from getting hurt. Putting them both to sleep in the tree...

Of course, that'd mean some... Intimacy, for want of a better word... with Latias. Which is apparently frowned on by humans. But at the end of the day, I'm the dragon. I'm in charge of my own actions, and what is socially acceptable to humans does not apply to me. Besides, I'm sure Latias has the same... feelings... But perhaps now is just not the time.

I'm so engrossed in my own thoughts, I don't notice Lorenzo until he speaks. "Latios. There you are!"

There's an awkward silence as I'm not quite sure how to respond.

"Are you okay?" He asks, an invite to respond. I suppose I do look a bit depressed lying down in my room on my own. "I'm fine, really! Fine. Thanks!" I respond, flying up and towards him. He does a smally belly laugh as I do.

"Ah, yes. Now. Come with me..." He turns around and heads out of the ample door way. Perhaps he's forgotten about my bath...

My hope is crushed as he starts walking down the stairs. "Could you just fetch the feather soap from the bathroom while I get the other stuff? Please?"

I could refuse. But the likelyhood of diciplne would be too much. Probably no ice cream later, his faveroute punishment: He could 'not feed us', but we'd just end up eating the local wildlife that he is fond of. That plan has backfired on him before. On the other hand, ice cream and dragon treats are held in tubs that me and Latias have yet to figure out how to open, so not feeding us that would have not work-around.

I turn to face the bathroom, and notice a sound like rain coming from inside. Is the shower runnng?

I open the door and am met by a puddle of water on the floor. The shower curtain is drawn, but the thing that gives the game away on it's occupant is the red wing sticking around the side. Water is running off the wing and starting to form a small lake on the bathroom floor.

With a psychic tug, I slide the shower cutain to the side, to reveal Latias (in her own form, of course) looking directly into the stream of water with her eyes closed, back completely streight and arms folded in, for once. How did she even figure out how to turn it on?

I click my tounge, grabbing her attention. Her eyes snap open and she looks right at me, before screaming as loudly as possible and psychicly tugging the curtain closed again.

"Ah! Latios! Look away!"

Ba, wh, g, L... Words defeat me for a second. Look away? LOOK AWAY? Obviusly, she's saying that because shes naked, but that's exactly the same as how I'd normally see her. The fact she showers naked is irrelevant because - being animals - we do most things naked.

If she's this sensitive to theise issues, I cant help but think that having children may be an issue... But I'll speak to her later about that.

"That doesn't even make any sense." I say as calmly as possible. "And anyway, turn the shower off. The water is running off your wing and onto the floor."

A red dragon head peeks around the curtain and looks at the floor. Most of her neck stays behind it.

"Oh. Right. Errr..."

Lorenzo has obviously heard us shouting, because his voice bellows through the house. "What's going on up there?". Like he'd understand the response.

I shout back. "Latias is having a shower! In her pokemon form!"

The shower stops running, and Latias also shouts to Lorenzo. "I SAID, I'M NOT HAVING A BATH!"

Lorenzo bursts through the door and looks down at the floor when his foot steps in and makes a splashy noise. "What?"

I draw a claw out and point at the closed shower curtain, still with a Latias wing sticking out of it. Nuff' said, and I didn't even say anything.

"Latias, get out of that shower. Now." Lorenzo says in a voice crossed between stern and bemused.

"No! Not while you two are there!" is the Lati response. Which only I should be able to understand. But Lorenzo gets the gist from the tone of voice.

"I see you like that every day, Latias. I don't really care. Get out. Or no sweets for a week."

Look at old Lorenzo, laying down the law.


	21. Chapter 21: Bath

I MADE THE MEMEBASE HOMEPAGE! "Mews Electrical's"

Anyway... Reviewers, and didn't you all appear at one!

Badassery upon a disproportionately large scale is planned, fear not. The next story has it in such proportion, it had to have a whole story just to itself, just to contain it. In this one, things spice up considerably at Lorenzo's party, which will happen sooner than you think.  
BBT is the best (For those not aware, BBT = Big Bang Theory). My nickname at work is 'sheldon', because while I always reach the most antitrosphical and logical means to a problamatic and polymorphic issue, I'm socially hopeless and use a varied selection of poly-symbolic lexicons to reach it.  
Neither did I. This stuff is poring out of my brain. Literally. Any more and we'll need a mop...

This chapter is a bit weak... I'm sorry. I blame sleep deprivation: It's been a collage week and I had a bunch of assignments to do, and I still need to get up at 5, for the 6:20 train which is when I type these up. Apologies in advance. I'll spartan it up in the next chapter, promise!

* * *

**Chapter 21: Bath**

"Ugh, why did you have to... Okay." Latias voice rings out from behind the curtain, amplified by the walls and general acoustics of the shower. She pulls the shower curtain back with a psychic hand and floats out of the tub, rotating so she's horizontal the moment she clears the edge. Her face is twisted into a scowel, not happy with the situation. If she was scary before, she's terrifying now.

Lorenzo stops being angry and starts being amused. He can never stay angry at us for any length of time, and I suppose he's just glad Latias wasn't resisting to much.

"What on earth possesed you to have a shower? I was going to give you a bath anyway!" He says in an incredulous voice.

Latias unfolds a claw and points at a plastic bottle that is on the little shelf attached to the thing that holds the shower. "Bianca's shampoo. Makes hair glossy."

Lorenzo looks at the bottle, back at Latias, then at the bottle.

"Oh, you wanted to be like Bianca? Fair enough, but why were you in your own form then?"

Latias doesn't have an answer to this one, and Lorenzo knows it. She starts looking around the room, but Lorenzo has her figured out.

"You're too big to fly through the window, don't bother trying...". Latias pauses and turns back to him. "Come on. Just come outside, have a bath, and then we can all sit down infront of the TV afterwards with a beer"

The beer is enough to pursuade me (Dont judge!), but Latias prefers sweeter tastes. "Cider".

"Okay then, Cider. BUT! You have to clean this floor." Lorenzo barters. Lorenzo has - and always will be - a 'real ale' fan, as he calls it. So he's trying to get Latias to stop drinking 'processed muck' and start having 'propper larger'.

Me and Latias usually have extremely high alcohol tolerances, we weigh more and have a stronger metabolism. I say usually. Occasionally, it drops to human levels, for reasons we have yet to understand. Only very occasionaly though. This doesn't stop 70-year-old Lorenzo from trying to out-drink us. Much to Bianca's horror.

"Deal!" Latias says, to Lorenzo's disappointment.

"Right then. Grab whatever soaps or shampoos you want and get down to the garden". He turns around and leaves, leaving me in the bathroom with Latias.

I turn to talk to Latias. "Makes hair glossy? Really? It only works on hair, idiot. Not feathers". She dismisses me with a "hmph" sound, as if I wouldn't understand her complex reasoning. Which I don't, because she hasn't given any.

Latias has been getting better with her psychic over the past year, and levitates the shampoo bottle from its little ledge and infront of her face. Content with her single chosen product, she flies round me and out of the bathroom.

What do I want then? Ideally, I'd want nothing. But I have to choose which I want, even though I don't really want either. Like choosing who's going to punch you in the face: The net result will be the same.

I fly over to a small cupboard and open it psychicly, taking care to apply a rotational force and not just pulling it like Bianca does. Her arm hinges, my psychic doesn't, so for quite a while before I realized, I wouldn't open a cupboard so much as tear the door from it's hinge.

I don't do that this time, and I investigate the array of brightly colored bottles, each of different styles and brands, one by one eliminating them from my list of things to take to Lorenzo.

Lemon scented - Don't like lemon Plain - Not very good at actually getting you clean Blonde - That's one's for hair (who's it even for? Bianca is dark haired)  
NoMoreTears - Yeah right... 'No more tears'. Liar.  
Auborn - For hair Generic pink goo - Really? Not very masculine...  
Petal - Same reason. Also only for hair...

The list goes on, very few of the bottles being for feathers. Eventually, I pull out two. The first one doesn't have a smell but apparently has 'mate attracting pheromones'. Pointless for me, I'm already bursting with them anyway. And I can't event smell them.

The second one I can't identify, but it's a bright green color and smells fresh. It doesn't have the words 'dye' or 'hair' on it, so it must be okay.

I levitate the bottles out and in front of my face, then fly out, down the stairs, through the hallway and out into the back garden. Almost.

Just as I'm through the door, a tug on my wings makes me jerk backwards.

Yet again, I've not put my wings all the way back, and have caught them in the door frame. From outside I hear a belly-laugh. Lorenzo. "Dear me Latios... Try again?"

I do, this time with my wings all the way back. I make it through the door. Latias is looking at me when I fly out, and voices her own opinion on why I won't fit through the door. "You need to eat less, fatty!"

Considering she has the worse power-to-weight ratio than me, this probably isn't an argument she'll want to start. "Says YOU! You look like someone strapped wings on a potato."

That similie sounds a bit odd, but it isn't. When Bianca was in pre-school, she had homework to build a model of one of Alto Mare's legenderies. For some reason, she found a particularly round potato that she said looked like Latias, then taped two wings on it, painting the entire thing red. It was terrible, I'm not going to lie. Even worse when everyone made much better models and they were working from their imagination, not the legendary floating a few feet away.

I don't remeber, but I think Latias ate it when Bianca got it back. It was a potato, after all.

Lorenzo can tell something's about to kick off and holds out his hands between mine and Latias line's of sight, so both of us can no longer see the other one's face. "Calm it down you two!"

He's right, Latias would react disproportionately, so I'm glad for the intervention. Latias just makes a huffing noise.  
After a few seconds, Lorenzo holds out his hands.

"Okay, let's see what you wanted". He wants us to levitate the soap products into his hands so he can check it suitable - and not hair dye - and so he can put it in the water. I psychicly propel my two choices into the hand closest to me, and Latias does the same with the hand closest to her.

Lorenzo looks at Latias' choice first. "Hmmmm... Latias, you know this is hair shampoo?" Latias just nodds.

"Yeah, well, but, All feathers are are hairs running down a central quill, so it should be fine".

That's not true, their isn't a single HAIR on our bodies. What we do have are fibres, which are water proof, so normal soaps will just slide off, hence the requirement of feather soaps. Even then, our fibres are different, so those soaps just slide off too.

Lorenzo puts the bottle on the floor to his left. "Well okay, it's your coat... Lets see, Latios..." He looks at mine, and almost immediately raises his eyebrows, like I've made an alarming choice.

"This is bleach" he says, referring to the bottle with green liquid in it. "You don't want this going anywhere near you, okay? It'll make you really quite sick. Worse than chocolate."

Now he mentions it, it's smell does have quite a lot of nasty elements to it. Yes, probably NOT a good idea to let this near me. Lorenzo puts the bottle well out of the way and examines the other one.

"And this one... Good choice I think. Certainly better than most of what was available, I should probably get Bianca to buy a few more masculine products, since I'm right in guessing you don't like the pink ones?"

I nod and he laughs. "No matter what species it is, the boys always hate pink!". He turns around to face a large bowl filled with hot water which has a sponge floating in it.

This is true, though I don't see the use of it in humans. Latias, for example, is more inclined to like pink because in the wild it helps choose riper and better tasting berries. Since she'd be the one collecting more berries as it's the female who normally finds plant food in a normal family, that is an important feature. Which is why the berries Latias picks always taste better. She also has proportionally longer arms for her body size than me, which helps pick the berries because she can reach further away berries through smaller gaps.

The male (that's me), on the other hand, is more tuned to go hunting: My arms are shorter, I'm bigger and more camouflaged against the sky than Latias.

What neither of us was designed for, however, was washing by a human. So we're naturally inclined to dislike that.

Lorenzo tells us who's going first. He used to ask us, but it led to too many arguments. "Latios, you first."

I suppose the sooner we start, the sooner it's over and done with. I fly over next to the bowl, well aware of the procedure.

As Latias does a mini-celebration thing with her arms, Lorenzo leans over and adds a decent amount of the soap to the hot water, mixing it by splashing his hand around for a bit in the water, building up a froth of 'suds' (as Bianca calls them) on the top.

After he's done that, he dipps the sponge in the water and squeezes it, letting it expand and take up as much water as possible, before removing it and letting some water drip off. He looks at me.

"Come on then!". I stay where I am, I'm plenty close enough. At the end of the day, I just don't want soapy liquid in my eyes.

"We're not playing silly beggers here" - one of his faveroute expressions. "If you don't come to me, I'll just come over to you."

That's fine by me.

He realizes I'm not voluntarily moving, and walks over to me with the sponge in his hand. In a movement - which he probably thinks was fast but in my time was positively slow - He brings the sponge up and swings it onto my neck, just behind my ears, with a squelching noise.

Of course, because my feathers are water retardent, the water slides right off and onto the floor. Not that this discourages Lorenzo. I can feel the sponge get pressed hard along and down my neck, Lorenzo putting on a great deal more force than is needed. "Not so harsh!" I snap at him. Really, I don't even need a wash.

So why is Lorenzo giving me one? I consider his motives as he reaches my midsection. Yes, perhaps it's because he likes us being clean and looking our best, but we normally do that ourselves anyway. It's like when we were small: for the first few months we had to figure everything out ourselves: Flying, Hunting, Battling... Until we found the house and the occupants, Lorenzos grandparents, who were young twenty somethings at the time. They helped us along with the basics, including daily washes. For those first few years, they treated us like we were their own small children. It must have been some parental instinct until they had their own child.

It occurs to me that soon, Bianca will leave the house to travel, or get a job, and Lorenzo won't see her as often. In a way, we will be the only companions he will have. Perhaps he's still giving us baths and stuff because he still feels the need to do parental activities. When we were small, we would always have bathtime with Bianca, who would giggle and try to copy all the things that we did.

Even though that depressing thourght is quite perniant at the moment, I still can't stop snappng at him again as he pinches one of my feathers between the sponge and his fingers again. "Ouch! No need to press so hard!". Lorenzo just chuckles. "Stop being a baby, you love it really!".

He's right. I enjoy aspects of it: For example, the warm water is considerably hotter than a cloud or a lake. And to a certain extent, it does make me smell nicer.

But compared to the disadvantages: The burning soap getting in your eyes, the fact it involves staying still for ages while someone else does something foryou, getting soap in your snout... It just isn't worth it.

Lorenzo works his way from the top of my neck to the tip of my tail fins, applying the sponge in strokes that follow the direction of my feathers. Next, he goes onto my wings. I've already lowered them so they are flat, and he does the same method in slightly lighter strokes, going from the part of my wing at the body to the tip of them, stroking from the front to the back to keep in line with the feathers. I can't see any of what he's doing, because my neck doesn't reach round that far. He gets to my wing tip of the left wing and does quick small strokes on the miniture triangles that extend out from there. They are quite fragile so he has to take care, but he still applies a tad to much pressure, giving me a jolt of pain and making me snap at him again "Ow! Lorenzo!"

Eventually he finishes that wing and moves onto my right one, which me manages to finish without hurting me this time.

Then we come to my snout.

I back away from him a bit, perhaps he'll realize that I really, REALLY don't want soap in my eyes. Lorenzo walks after me, so I back of again. "No soap in my eyes!" I tell him, though he'll not understand. He walks after me again.

"Come on... It's not nice but you backing away is only going to delay the inevitable"

He's right. I can't go backwards forever. I stop moving and he walks towards me, damp, soapy sponge in hand. "Ready?" he asks, in a much friendler voice.

I nod in response and he starts by gently rubbing the sponge on the end of my snout. It's not that bad I suppose... Slowly he increases the pressure, and starts moving around. "Close your mouth" He asks me, even though it wasn't even open. I clamp my mouth tighter closed though, and he runs the sponge over it. He washes that bit and when he's finished I open my mouth again.

Immediately, the taste of soap enters it, and it's foul. The moment Lorenzo is out of my way, I spit on the ground. The taste is still there there though, and it seems nothing short of a dragon breath is going to clear it. Obviously, I can't do that while he's stood near me. I just want this bath to end.

Then it gets worse. Lorenzo tells me to close my eyes, which can only mean he's going to be rubbing that soap near them. I clamp them shut, and Lorenzo splats the sponge against my eyelids. My eyelids are made of feathers too, so Lorenzo still thinks they need cleaning, even though they don't.

A few seconds after he starts, the worst pain ever stabs through my left eye, and I can't help rearing backwards and up, away from the soap, and start screaming.

"Ah! ow. Ow. Ow! OW! MY EYE! AHHHHH!"

To make matters worse for Lorenzo, Latias chimes up, though I can barely hear her over my own loud screaming. Although I dont blame her, it does sound very distressing. It's supposed to be distressing, because it should prompt a protective response to nearby family. In the case, Latias.

"Stop, Stop, Stop it! You're hurting him! Stop! STOP!"

Lorenzo had already stopped the moment I reared back, but that doesn't stop Latias from flying inbetween me and him, preventing Lorenzo from doing anything else.

"Are you okay? Latios? Okay? Hurt? You okay? Eyes?" She starts squealing at me, adding to the confusion of the situation. "Help? want help? Speak! Please?"

She's being protective, and I don't blame her. I'm much worse when something hurts her (other than me). I suppose there is nothing wrong with me asking her for help. "Soap. In my eye! Help?" I ask.

"Okay, Okay! Hold still and open your eyes..."

That's easier said than done. The moment I expose them to the air, the stinging intensifies. I look dead ahead though, at Latias. Shes floating vertically, her eyes no more than a foot away from mine and looking direcy at me. Her eyes look really cute, and there's quite a lot of concern in them. In the background, Lorenzo is looking concerned and upset. It's not his fault, I suppose, and he didn't mean to hurt me.

Latias' eyes glow blue breifly, and the stinging starts to go down. She must be doing something to remove it from my eyes, because they stop itching and just feel dry instead. The moment her eyes stop glowing, I blink several times, remoisturising them.

"Better?" Latias asks me.

"Better. Thanks sis." I respond, making her look proud. Shes proud of any occasion where she gets to look after something, in this case, Me.

She nuzzles my neck and coos, happy that my pain is gone. I coo with her. The sight of me screaming clearly spooked her a bit and she needs calming down.

Lorenzo makes the very brave choice of walking over and patting her on the wing. It's brave because he's the thing that's just caused me pain and Latias has a habit of mauling anything that hurts family. "I'm sorry about that, Latias. Next time I'll be more carefull." He apologises, giving her a soothing stroke on her wing as he does.

She stops nuzzling me and turns to rub her snout against Lorenzo's cheek. "It's okay, Lorenzo. I'm sorry I shouted at you...".

She does that for a bit, then flies back over to the spot she was on on the grass before, except this time she lays down and starts half heartedly eating the grass. She's not hungry, but when she's calming down she likes to chew on stuff.

Lorenzo looks back at me, sheepishly. "Sorry..."

Well, I guess I accept his apology. And he still needs to wash my underside, which is better because it tickles a bit and there isn't any stinging.

In response to his apology, I roll over in mid-air and then drop myself onto the floor, belly up.

I hate being like this outdoors. It leaves me so vulnerable, my soft underbelly facing the sky, the open air. Right now, anything could swoop down at me, and I'm at the worst possible angle for getting up and fighting back. But it makes Lorenzo slightly happier in that his apology was accepted.

Lorenzo kneels down next to the bowl, re-moistions the sponge and starts rubbing my stomach down with it, paying particular attention to the triangle on my chest. We've yet to figure out the reason that we both have them, but Lorenzo says they look nice.

All the time he's doing that, I get a tickling sensation, which is - in the wild - ment to make me scratch the area and remove whatever is causing the irritation. Like a poisonous bug type. Even though I know it's Lorenzo, I can't help but draw out an arm to scratch myself with, which Lorenzo promply slaps. "Oh, no you don't. Wait until my hands are nowhere near!" he warns me, but he's smiling. He clearly enjoys this.

So I content myself by holding light conversation instead, since the only other option is to lay there awkwardly.

"Oh! While we were paintballing, Jay was about to shoot Latias, right?" Lorenzo takes a while to respond "Yes?". Deep down, I know he can't understand me. But it's nice to tell him stuff, even if it's menial and he can't understand.

"So he was about to shoot, except he's a terrible shot, and misses every single shot. He was using the auto gun, by the way. So while he's going around and not hitting Latias, I charge after him and BLAM!" - I accompany this with a head flicking manuvre - "Smash straight into his side and send him flying!"

"Oh, that's good. Just, Put your arms back out, I need to wash your paws."

I do as he says and fold both my arms out, showing the top sides to him. He grabs my right claw and looks at it, before rubbing my 'palm' with the sponge. This tickles even more and I make some more happy cooing noises, which makes Lorenzo laugh. "You sound just like your sister!"

He finishes on that paw and starts cleaning the other. I can't help but feel ridiculously childish: I'm on my back, being given a bath, giggling. The only way I suppose I can justify this is by saying that he's washing places I can't reach because my arms are too small.

He finishes with my paw and plops the sponge back into the bucket, before playing the drums on my stomach. It doesn't hurt and he finds it entertaining, so I lie there and laugh at how easily entertained Lorenzo is.

Latias flies over and tries to join in, but her arms are in the wrong place and she realizes that she won't be able to. Instead, she waits until Lorenzo finishes his epic drum solo, then flies across so she's at about 40 degrees to me, her neck resting across mine, her body resting on my right wing that's still flat on the ground.

"LATIOS!" She squeals as she does, nuzzling the side of my face as she does. "You okay now?" I ask her. She just nods against my face. "You going to have your bath now?"

She hesitates a abit before nodding again. "Okay then..."

"Do you want me to be here?" I ask her, with good reason. However protective she is of me, I'm ten times more protective of her. She's weaker, slower and so more vulnerable then me, so whenever she cries about something, I'm always there to remove whatever it was that was distressing her. Which in the case of a bath would probably be Lorenzo. I wouldn't even consider the fact that he's being kind, in that kind of situation. I'd just instinctively go for him.

Which is why I'm glad when she tells me "I'll be fine, you can go find something in the garden."

"Okay..." I reply, rubbing the top of her head with the underneath of mine.

After a bit of cuddling, Latias gets up and flies over to Lorenzo, cheerful again, cooing, doing patterns in the air and allsorts, just for his amusement.

I'm not 100% happy about leaving her, but it's only 200 meters to the secret garden. I should easily hear her if she's really hurt.

I get up off the ground and fly towards the archway, moving my wings back into a 'V' as I do. There's no point in keeping them flat, I'm not going anywhere in a hurry.

Lorenzo won't question my absence, afterall, my wash is done now. I enter and exit the archway in under 3 seconds, even though I'm not rushing.

When I get out at the other side, I decide on what I'm going to do. I could go hunting, but we've just had lunch and I'm not hungry. I look around for inspiration, and quickly see it in the water fountain just ahead. I'll go and look at the soul dew.

I fly over and look at it from outside its cage. It's an interesting thing. Legend has it that it contains the soul of my father after he saved the city from being flooded. I'm at half a mind to believe that.

While the evidence exists to back up the legend, a few things still don't make sense: It says that only my father died. So surely my mother should still be alive? But she isn't, so what's happened there? The legends don't mention eggs at any point, so she must have had us after our father died, and then her herslef died after she laid. But how? Not old age, legendaries live almost indefinitely...

The soul dew doesn't have a single color, as such. It changes. Some days it's dark blue, navy almost, other days it's sky blue, sometimes it even turns a purple/red shade. The odd thing is, whatever shade it is always matches the color of it's aura. I've tried connecting with it psychicly, but it doesn't let me. Which in itself is odd: why would it refuse if it was just a piece of glass?

A new smell enters my nostrils. Its faint, but I identify it immediately. Meh, if she wants to find me, she will.

I turn around to look at the pattern on the floor behind me. Its intracate and was carved out before we were born, but it doesn't add any more light to the mystery of what happened to my parents. It details the entire legend, right from the wake up of my father to his death. He woke up in a similar style to how me and Latias did: On the floor, surrounded by egg shell.

For him, though, the myth never explicity mentioned a sibling, or a mate. Only a Latias (but not if or how she was related) with an unknown origin and him dying to save the town. We can only assume that that Latias was his mate. I feel a blast of longing for just 5 minutes of talking to this other Latios. I could ask him so much: How good am I as a legendary? Did he have a mate? Is he even my father?

Me and Latias both woke up at the same time, but that doesn't mean that we were from the same mother. It's possible we may not be related at all. I could ask the Latios from the myth that.

"Hiya Latios!" A voice. Her voice.

I turn to face it. To my left, hovering up the stairs, is a Gardevoir. She (Yes, we've met before) is about 1.7 meters high, psychic, and very humanoid. Of course, to humans what it sounded like she said would have just been "Gardevoir", but since language is universal, I can understand.

"Hi Green". That's my nickname for her. Garde in French is Green, and it's a fitting nickname. She is green.

She floats on over to me, which is extremely creepy when you consider the fact she has legs. She gets to witin 2 meters of me and I realize I'm still horizontal. I rotate round so I'm at a more approachable vertical angle, and she glides closer. I allow myself to smile. She always is good conversation. Plus I just remembered something I can tease her about.

"So... What are you doing? Same old, or..." She asks. She used to be shy (who wouldn't around a fearsome legendary like me? Plus some pokemon would consider her pray) but has started being a bit more bold and even started conversation.

"Not much really. Just thinking about me, my father, Latias..." I tell her. You can always be honest with her, she's never quick to judge.

"You like her? Latias, that is?" She asks. I give her a nod, and she returns a much more knowing nod. "I can see why. Do you think of her as a mate? Prospectively?". Humans would consider that a highly intimate question, but I don't have an issue.

"Well, Yeah... But I just..."

"Don't know how to tell her?"

I nod. She's right, as always. But then she does something completely unexpected.

"I've always... 'Liked' you too, Latios."

At first I don't know what to say. I'm flattered, but Green should know that a relationship like that isn't going to work out.

"That's... nice... but... Face it, your not even in the same egg group as me and besides, I like Latias."

"We're the same type! We're both psychic. And you know you can have more than one mate" She reminds me. This is very out of charector for her, but it gets even more so when she floats even closer and starts stroking the triangle on my chest with her three-fingered hand. She looks up at me, her hair covering one eye, but the other eye looking very intent.

Most pokemon would jump at the opportunity of having a gardevoir as a mate. But right now, all I can think about is just having a normal mate for my species. A Latias.

"No, Green. It's not going to happen, okay?" She looks dejected, and I think I may have been a bit blunt, until she speaks up.

"That's okay, I'm sorry. It was worth a shot... Can we change the subject?" She asks, still tracing the triangle pattern on my chest, this time more sadly than seductively.

"That's okay... Yeah sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything but you and Latias..."

I can't think of anything on the spot, but shes taken her rapid rejection very well. She deserves cheering up.

"Well, she's having a bath right now. You want to watch, it's quite funny?" I tell her. If there's one thing that'll cheer anyone up, it's Latias giggling.

"Er... Sure, why not?" She smiles and we both head off, back through the archway.

* * *

Yeah, crappy ending or what? There's only so much you can do on the 6:27 to London :/. Especially when the person next to you keeps looking over your shoulder and frowning. SO WHAT I'M WRITING A STORY ABOUT POKEMON? YOU GOT A PROBLEM? EH? Ah good, she's gone.

Also, I got a computer programming award today (Top 10 Minecraft plugins as chosen by PlanetMinecraft), so high spirits all round! And I don't mean ghosts taking heroin when I say that.

**If you haven't reviewed yet, I wholeheartedly encourage you to.** They really do make the crowded commuter train home that little bit better :)


	22. Chapter 22: Green

Funny? Thanks! I like to think our existance is to entertain. Which is ironic in that I'm have the least comic job ever, engineering. The most I have to giggle about at work is 'Suck Squeeze Bang Blow', AKA How a typical Gas Turbine engine functions.  
Commend my spirit? How very... Well worded. Thank you though, it's not as bad as I make it sound sometimes. I think I'll even fork out another 50 quid for a first class season ticket next month :). Some people arent too bad, some are actually interested and ask questions. Seriously though, so long as people are enjoying the story, I could be getting up at 3AM. It's worth it just to hear you guys enjoy reading them. I'd like to know how Glory for Sleep gets so many reviews though...

* * *

We start 'walking' through the archway. By 'walking', I mean gardevoir is floating with her legs just above the ground, and I'm floating almost vertically with my tail feathers just above the ground. She's about 20 centimeters smaller than me while I'm floating like that. Almost the same size as Bianca.

I try to lighten the mood. I decide to tease her about the video I saw of her species. "So, have you seen that video? On the internet?".

"Oh... No, not this again...". I take it from that she has. Brilliant.

I try to immitate her voice. It's a terrible impersonation, but the intention is there. "Another Egg Please! Another Egg Please!".

Perhaps I should explain. Last week, someone put a video on the internet called 'Gardevoir Goes to the Convenience Store'. Not a very catchy name as videos go, but still it's the content that matters. It is, simply put, a cartoon about a gardevoir that goes to the Pokemart to generally annoy the cashier, during which she orders 3 eggs individually.

It is also extremely annoying to green, by the sounds of it.

"That's NOT funny!" She says, and playfully hits me in the wing. There was quite a lot of force behind that to say it was only a playful shove. She's gotten strong.

"I only have 10 poke, mischief I think" The video sounds like a rather bad translation, by the way. I think that it annoys green because it makes Gardevoir's look stupid.

"I said, stop it! Otherwise we'll see a video called 'Latios goes to the Pokemon Centre, because 'Green' punched him so hard in the face he hit a brick wall half a mile away'"

"That's a bit of a long title." Is the only thing I can think of saying. "I don't think it will catch on."

Green isn't seriously irritated, she rarely is that annoyed. She's just playing that angle. Surely?

I turn it up a bit. "Hi girl, are you bra-less?". It's a line from the video, said by two large pokemon that the animated gardevoir quickly dispenses with.

"I'm serious. Stop. It."

She's just messing. Obviously. Her face (with one eye still covered by her hair) looks completely neutral. As it always looks when she's saying something for effect.

I fly round and right up so my snout is millimeters from her face. "Really? Try me..."

I notice a change in her face which is somewhat concerning. It has lit up with a smile, like her current opportunity is entertaining. And it's moved like she's drawn an arm back... Can Gardevoir learn hyper punch?

The truth - and her fist - hit me at the same time. Square in the chest, I'm completely unprepared, and sent flying backwards down the archway. We were almost near the exit, and I shoot out of the other end, catching a breif glimpse of daylight, before I collide with something else that I recon is Latias on account of how fluffy it is. This theory is confirmed when she yelps outloud, her voice just inches from my ears. "Latios!?".

Milliseconds after she says that, we collide with the house. Luckily, it was just a brick part, not a window or anything. Latias waits a second before speaking up.

"What the? Why were you flying backwards?"

Judging by Latias' complaining, the collision didn't hurt her that much. And I'm not hurt either. But that punch was still really powerful. Green's gotten strong...

Speak of the devil, and his green haired secutary will appear. As I'm flying up from the pile on the floor, I look towards the archway and see green, floating towards Lorenzo. Considering she just hit me into a brick wall, I don't want her going near my family, cheifly at this moment in time, Lorenzo.

"Step away from Lorenzo." I growl at her. She keeps floating towards him though, looking quite menacing for some reason. I hesitate to remind her where she sits in the whole Latios-Predator Gardevoir-Pray Cycle. But I don't generally eat things that were my friends. Even if they are enemies now. Emotionally attached as I am.

"Don't go any closer to him, or I swear, I'll..." I growl a bit deeper. This seems to get her attention. And she isn't pleased.

"Oh shut it, 'Blue'". I don't know why, but her twisting my usage of her nickname against me seems... Threatening. Also, not many pokemon I know are brave enough to tell me to shut up. She continues, on a rant which seems a bit out of context. "You could have had me! I could have been your mate! Y' know, some pokemon would kill for that. Have killed. But instead... You go for the a st-"

Before I can do anything else, Latias full-on headbutts Green, flicking her head upwards on contact, making her fly up, like I did with Jay, except she goes much much higher. Gardevoir are mostly light tissue, so she goes a lot higher than expected. The motion also brings Latias to a stop, so all her momentum must have been transferred to green. No wonder she went that high...

"SCORE!" Latias screams as Green goes pinwheeling over the garden wall.

There's a moment of silent drama as me, Latias and Lorenzo all ask ourselves what the hell just happened.

Latias ends it with a rather cliche announcement. "No one messes with my family.". It's so cliche that if she had her paws out, she'd probably noncelantly brush them. She turns to face me, wanting a congratulations for doing good. I'm smiling at her, it really was quite an impressive takedown.

"Nice shot!" Is the only thing I can think of saying.

Lorenzo speaks up too, not happy with the fact Latias had just attacked a seemingly innocent pokemon for no reason. He lets us have our arguments with the wildlife, but random violence (which it looked like from his point of view) is unacceptable to him. "What was all that about?". Good question.

"Yeah bro, why'd she come after you like that?" Latias asks me.

They are both looking at me, expecting an answer. Latias looks curious (she rarely doesn't, something about how her body is always curved, like a question mark). Lorenzo looks a lot more... Angry?

Now, I suspect that me teasing Green about that video had something to do with it. But I think the main reason (based on what she was saying before Latias hit her), was how I rejected her in choice of Latias as a soul mate for the rest of her life but only a tiny fraction of my own, thereby symbolizing how much I prefer Latias to the point of despizing all other Pokemon through the selfish preservation of myself for her.

Given that contextual act, now could be the perfect time to let Latias know how I feel about her!

I speak up. "I have honestly no idea".

Damn it, mouth. You had one job...

"Huh, that's wired. She said something about being her mate..." Latias silently muses. Lorenzo still is in the dark. "Latios? What was that about?".

I draw out my arms and hold them slightly bent with the palm facing the sky, an immitation of a shrug, the universal symbol for 'I don't know'. Lorenzo frowns. "Well obviously you do, you were growling at her".

I note that he's made the natural assumption that all Gardevoir are female, when the likelyhood of green being male is 30% for all he knew. Regardless, he's figured out that it was blatently prevoked. "She was going to hurt you!" I shout, accompanying this with hand gestures. 'She', I point at the sky where green just flew. 'Hurt', I stab one of my claws near my other paw. 'You', I point at him.

He gets the gist. "Hurt me? Why?"

I shrug again. Some things are better left unsaid. Or un-mimed. Or Un-telepathed. The point is, It would be much easier for Lorenzo to believe she wanted to attack him for no reason then to try and explain her emotionally confused mind.

"Hmmm..." Is all Lorenzo has to say on the offer. He picks up the sponge off the grass - which he must have dropped in suprise when I ran into Latias - and drops it back into the tub, which by now has almost no water in. "Latias was almost finished having her bath, but I guess she's clean enough..."

The old man toddles off back inside the house, carrying the tub and sponge. He leaves the door back open in case we want to fly back through, but instead Latias gestures over to the archway. "Let's go to the garden!".

I do a sigh and turn around to face said archway. We both set off at the same time, enter the arch at the same time, leave the arch and enter the garden, both at the same time. Once out, Latias pauses for a second before going over to the soul dew on its pedistal, and gazing into it intently.

I join her in this staring session, flying next to her and peeking through the bars of the cage at the dynamic dew. We're both floating horizontally, at waist height, and with our wings in a v shape. The default, really.

"Do you ever wonder... Where we are REALLY from?" She asks in an awed voice. As awed as a light cooing noise can sound, at least. Looking at the dew always makes her mood change rapidly. Her aura had gone from bright pink to dull blue in a matter of seconds.

"Yeah. Quite a lot really..."

"Do you know what happened to our parents?"

This isnt the first time she's asked that. The hardest part about being the oldest is telling the only other one of you in existence that you 'don't know' something.

"I don't know. But we'll find out. Eventually." I'm whispering, but I don't know why. Something about the mood just says that's what I should be doing. Since I need to maintain the 'wise' appearance, though, I throw in a somewhat interesting statment.

"The truth can be suprising. For all you know, we're from 2 completely separate Lati families. Image that! There could be more of us, just hidden somewhere. Or waiting to hatch! Think of that! You might have a sister, but just laid somewhere else."

This sentence perks her up more than I thourght it would, and her aura brightens a lot more.

What I don't point out is that if the eggs were abandoned and waiting to hatch, with no mothers for warmth or fathers for protection, they would most likely fail or be stolen and eaten by other hungry pokemon. We've done so much ourselves. But so long as she forgets this fact and stays happy, I'm fine.

She starts floating away from the Soul Dew's cage, hovering over the railing and out over the big main lake.

"Yeah, that could be true. Ohh..." She stops like she's had an idea, raising her head in the air.

"What?"

"Nothing. Do you want to go fly around for a bit?"

Well, I've got nothing else to do and Latias clearly wants to. Call me over protective, but the idea of her flying alone over such a big area still makes me worry.

"Sure, Why not?" I respond, trying to inject as much joy into my voice as possible.

It's not that I'm not happy. But - call this silly if you want - I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I should word my feelings to Latias, now that Green made me think about it. And when to tell her. It sounds stupid, but there's no ignoring the fact that Latias and I have become slightly domesticated. Which always complicates things.

In the wild it would be simple. I'd show off a bit, fight away any competition and she'd pick me. But it seems our living with humans has made her forget theise procedures, or at least made her think that they don't apply to her. After all, there isn't any competition and I'm constanly showing off, but she's still not approached me. So it looks like I'll be the one who has to do the approaching. Which I have no idea how to do.

I try and forget that for now and concentrate on enjoying the moment.

She sets off upwards and I follow, doing intricate chasing patterns in the sky as we accelerate. She'll do a really complicated manuvre, then I'll copy it almost exactly, barely a tenth of a second behind. The entire time, she's giggling and chattering, generally having a great time. I'm enjoying this too, and try and copy her chattering as well, with mixed results.

We reach cloud level and she stops below it, curving around as she stops so she's now horizontal, looking at the ground. I fly up next to her and look at the ground too. It's about 3 o'clock, and people are still moving in and out of shops, around narrow canals or alleyway, meeting and eating in squares... Typical Alto Mare life.

Its odd, being this high up, if your not used to it, unlike me. Below you, a vast blue ocean, interrupted only by a large island. Look closer and you realize it's actually a series of smaller islands. Above you, a big, gray blanket, that looks almost like it's made of cotton, that you can touch it. But you can't, it's just a lot of water droplets being suspended by air currents.

And it's so quiet. Wheras humans have open ear canals to allow as much sound as possible in, the ends of ours are surrounded in feathers. On a human, the wind would blow almost directly at their ear drum and make a lot of noise. But because we have theise feathers, it just blows against them instead and not the ear drum, meaning we don't hear any wind noise, even at high altitude.

Latias is perfectly audiable when she shouts over to me. "First one to find Bianca wins!". This game isn't open for debate, and she starts the instant after she says it.

She turns invisible and darts towards the ground, spiralling as she does. I shift my feathers so they are also arranged in the invisible pattern, and fly across next to her, doing a spiral in the opposite direction. We reach roftop height and Latias immediately heads off down one street on our left, flying just above the rooftops and looking down, flicking through everyone in the crowd, checking each one to see if they look like Bianca. It sounds like a slow process, but we aren't slow animals. Bianca estimates that our brains work 20 times faster than hers. So Latias manages to get down the entire street crowded with at least 40 people in under 4 seconds.

I take the ajacent street and work down it, checking that Latias is okay and not in any trouble after every street. At higher altitudes, she can look after herself. But down her, there's the serious possibility of her flying into a building or starting a fight with someone or something.

Alto Mare is made up of over 500 sepeate islands, all connected by 200 different canals, with 6 main canals running in a grid like fashion. The main canal starts at the museum on one side of the island, and finishes at the peir on the other side. Needless to say, there is a lot of places to check, and since I'm bound by streets Latias is opposite by wanting to keep an eye on her, the result is that we are still 20 minutes in and neither of us have found her. Of course, she could be inside a shop or cafe, in which case we'd be searching until she came out.

But that isn't her style, she's a much more out-doorsy person. So if she's anywhere, she'll probably be in a square, on some steps, chatting to her friends.

The moment Latias turns down a street close enough to the square in front of the museum, I search the square. Sure enough, I find Bianca on the steps outside the museum, with her friends, licking an ice cream. Her friends are spead out over two steps, with 4 on each row, Bianca on the lower is in front of them all, doing various tricks and stuff with the bone. The girls are half-watching, half-engrossed in their conversation, occasionally making wow noises when he does certain tricks.

Of course, I can't just fly down there and say hi, I'd reveal myself to everyone there. I'm content with floating a few meters above their heads and listening in to their girly conversations.

One of the girls seems to be talking about her holiday to the mainland, and her attempts at capturing a pokemon. "And then what happens? Yeah, you guessed. Abra used teleport".

The girls all laugh. I think this must be a running joke, as it wasn't on its own that funny. She carries on. "So I failed to catch at least 7 different mainland pokemon. At least. And there was this one kid who challenged me to battle, right?"

The posse all nods, a few 'uh hu's.

"He's got a digglet. 2nd move, it's almost fainted, what's he say?" She does an imitation of a high pitched voice. "Diggy, use Fly!"

Her friends look at her with a mixture of partial and full blown confusion.

"Yeah, that's right. He told his digglet to use Fly."

The girls all make simultaneous snorting noises, with a few "pah!"s and a "moron" mixed in.

The way they all react in time with each other is so in sync, you'd think they were timing it with telepathy or something. They aren't, because there's no psychic communication, or at least that I can detect. But very synchronised all the same. Like how me and Latias can do intricate patterns in the air that are perfectly timed, but don't communicate.

Speaking of Latias, she's finally realized that she's lost this game, and flies right in line next to me.

I turn to face her, and she does the same, putting her snout so it's almost touching mine. When she's speaking telepathically to me, she always does this, even though we have a range of about 50 miles. But she does it anyway. Bianca says it looks like we're kissing, but we're not and right now she can't see us at all.

Her voice appears in my head. "Again!? Ugh, HOW?". She's referring to the fact I've found Bianca first almost every single time.

"Latias, humans congregate in squares like this. Especially when they are in groups. Odds are she's going to be in some kind of meeting place like this. Check those places first, Find the human first. It's common sense, really..."

"Oh..." She sends back.

She turns away and looks down at Bianca. I do the same, and watch her friends some more.

Her friends are mostly okay. One has a mudkip on her lap, another is cradling a togapi, but the rest either aren't trainers or don't have pokemon outside their balls. All of them are dressed OK, unlike some of the girls around here, who I don't think the verb 'dressed' applies to. Mini skirts and blouses seems to be the trend right now, and Bianca's group seem to have that one nailed, bar two. I don't always judge people on their clothes, but when I do, it's normally right. For example, if they are wearing crocks, a hoodie with the hood up and jogging bottoms in in the middle of summer, odds are they aren't friend material (not that I have any human friends).

The reason this occurs to me now though, is that someone matching that very description walks up to the group and sits down with them, right next to the girl on the far right of the lower step. He must be her mate. Boyfriend. Associated partner in reproduction. Whatever.

"Er... Who are you?" The girl he sat next to asks. So not her boyfriend after all.

"I think you should be asking yourself that. Who are you? Where have YOU been all my life, gorgeous?"

Now, I don't appreciate any male of any species who acts like that. The poor girl only looks 16, and he can't be much older. I'm thinking of various ways to intervene without revealing myself (one of which is making his head explode with psychic power. That might be a bit much though), when I look at the girl and remeber who she is.

Bianca has introduced me to her most trusted friends, and I recognize this girl after some effort. He name escapes me, but I distinctly remember one thing that she specializes in. I let this situation play out. That guy is SO going to regret what he's doing.

The girl acts like she's flattered. "Oh, Er... Wow. Thanks, handsome.". She stands up, like she's flustered, and brushes her long, blond hair behind her.

This is where the guy is going to make his mistake.

"Don't watch! Stop him" says Latias' voice in my head. She doesn't know what's about to happen, so I telepath her to "just watch". She settles down.

The girl reaches out a hand to the guy, offering to help him up. The guy sees this and his mouth breaks out in a collosal grin.

He grabbs her hand and uses it to get up, tugging on it as an aid to his own puney legs.

The girl helps him to his feet by tugging on his hand. Which is the precise moment things turn against his favor.

She keeps on pulling even after he has got up, using her other arm as a support. The guy already had a spring in his jump, and this extra force from her arm sends him up and almost over the girls head.

The girl grabs one of his flailing legs and lifts that up, still raising his arm. This gives her the extra height to get him over her head, before she uses that momentum to throw him sideways down the steps. He lands on his side on the floor with a thud.

The girl he'd tried getting off with is stood at the top, hands on hips, staring him down.

Bianca's group of girls all spontanuisly start clapping and cheering, with cheers of "Em-I-ly! Em-I-ly!"

That's right, I remember. The girls name is Emily. Emily the under 18s judo, karate and boxing champion of Alto Mare.

The boy is on the floor, looking like he's in all sorts of hurting. Two other boys come rushing to his aid from the middle of the square. They're laughing the entire time. When they get over, they immediately start making fun of him.

"Dude, do you need a burn heal?"

"Er... No, Why?"

Both of the stood up ones chime in at once, leaning in an shouting for greater effect. "BECAUSE YOU JUST GOT FLAMED!"

Emily - as I remember she's called - sits back down, nonchalantly checking the phone that was in her tracksuit trousers. "Sorry about that, carry on?"

The girls go back to their chattering, the subject now changing to various acts of supreme violence a seemingly harmless Emily has managed to commit. She certainly doesn't look like a martial arts champion, except perhaps the tracksuit.

Latias' voice appears inside my head. "Woah, did you see that!?". No. I had my eyes closed the ^entire^ time.

"Told you it'd be interesting" I telepath back.

"Yeah. Can we go and look at the mimes?" Latias asks, even though she doesn't need to.

Being a touristy place, Alto Mare also has its share of street performers, the majority of which hang around about the tourist attractions. In this case, it's the museum. There are rules about how close they can be to the museum steps though, so as a result they're in the middle of the square, away from Bianca's group.

"Sure, you go. I'll catch up". It's only the other side of the square, she'll be fine. I want to hear more about the epic things Emily has done.

Unfortunately, the topic has changed. Bianca has spoken up and mentioned the party, and their al chatting about that now.

"Oh yeah, I can come", "sure", "cool" and "Okay"'s are all tossed around.

The girl on the other side of Bianca nudges her, getting her attention. "Will Latios be there?". Bianca's friends are reliable, so they don't talk about our existence to anyone else. Although why she's asking about me, I don't know. Latias is a lot more entertaining at parties.

"You keep your warped ideas about Latios to yourself thanks!" Bianca jokes, prompting laughs all round. The girl doesn't takes it seriously though, and shouts over the giggling. "I JUST WANTED TO KNOW! GEEZE! NOT IN THAT WAY!"

Which makes the girls giggle even more.

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Gardevoir goes to the convenience store is a real video. Apparently - according to my Japanese friend - it was used for 6 consecutive weeks to tech girls aged 8-12 about etiquette and avoiding pedophiles. So there's that...


	23. Chapter 23: Present

Just out of interest, how many of my fans are from the US of A? This current story is bound quite a lot by my dream, but it's sequal is... Interesting... And I may include the US military (even though I'm from ye olde great Britain and only kenow about our own military affairs) if a certain amount are from America. It is, by the way, one hell of a sequal.

Reviewers:  
Damn it, guest. Stop giving the game away! For the record, yes, that is the plan. Which is why I included that girl in the last chapter. Stop reading ahead!

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The girl seems to be loosing this shouting battle, and so sits back down, folding her arms and frowning at the concrete. Which makes her friends laugh even more harder.

"Yeah, let's go look at the mimes" I telepath over to Latias, who immediately turns tail and flies over to them. I copy, no longer interested in Bianca's conversation, and go to the area with the street performers, hovering just above their heads.

I like the street performers. You've got the traditional mimes in black and white, pretending they are in invisible boxes, pulling other mimes over, or having shootouts. One time, because I was bored, I tried psychicing an invisible box actually around a mime. It worked, and his reaction was priceless. First, shock, realization that the box was real. Then he milked the situation for a bit, earning more money for his brilliant 'acting', leaning on the sides so it looked like he should be falling over, but not. But I kept the box up a bit long, and when he tried to leave, he kept walking into the sides. Eventually he reached a state of raw panic, screaming that he was 'trapped in an invisible box' to tourists, who couldn't hear him and thourght it was all part of the act. Eventually, he paniced so badly he fainted. People still thourght that was a part of the act though...

Either way, when the ambulance eventually arrived, the streacher he was being carried off on was showered with coins.

Entertaining for all involved, I'd like to think...

You've also got the statues. People cover themselves in some kind of shiny material or paint, then sit on a podium and stay dead still like a statue until a tourist walks near them, then they jump out at them. For some reason, this makes the tourists give them money. I like watching the tourists reactions, which range from punching the performer in the face to screaming like a girl.

Lastly, 'le Alto Mare Special'. Theise guys put on costumes that they've made themselves, and vary in likliness to Me and Latias. Some are just people wearing red paper, which is pitifully poor, whilst others are made of felt and immitation fur or feathers, and shaped/colored according to their own interpretation of what we look like, which comes from the carvings and scriptures in the museum. Weirdly, the most accurate ones to what we actually look like get the most money, even though no one has actually seen us.

Latias is right now looking at a performer imitating her lying down asleep on the ground. They've got it remarkably close: The man (or woman, I can't tell as it loks like they've curled themselves up in the main body of the costume and are operating the neck, mouth and eyes by some sort of remote control) has dressed him/her self in delicately crafted feathers stuck to some kind of suit with two slightly small wings. Aside from the lack of tail fins/flippers, the slightly too small wings and the neck being a bit wide at the bottom, it's not a bad interpretation at all.

Said neck is curled round so it's almost tucked under the wing, which is also how Latias sleeps if she's on the floor and I'm not there. When I am there and it's cold, she'll sleep with her snout buried under my neck for warmth. All in all, the performer is doing a great impersonation. Occasionally he makes a variaty of animal-sounding noises (which are not at all what me and Latias sound like), but other than that it's almost spot on. He's even got the ridges where the white bit of our bodies reach to colored bits. A very good eye for detail.

He's being rewarded for this, coins raining down from passers by.

Latias turns towards me and does the snout-touching thing. "That one's good! But I don't sound like that... Do I?"

"No, but no ones heard us before, have they?" I point out, and she gives a nod.

A child runs up to the performer and pats what would be mine and Latias scruff on the costume. "Mummy look!" it squeals, stroking the scruff of the performers costume, enjoying the texture.

'Mummy' runs over and gives an 'aww' noise, reaching into a bag for a phone so she can take a picture. "Stay still!" She says as the child gives the Latias immitation a hug. A camera flash later and the moment is preserved for prosperity. I'm not sure, but I think the real Latias made a tiny 'squee' noise at the todlers expense.

The mum calls the toddler and both start to walk away without tipping the performer, much to his understandable annoyance. He makes a growling noise (which sounds the same as Latias', but lacks some of the lower frequencies), which makes the child jump.

The mum realizes her mistake and grabs a purse out of her bag, pouring coins into her hand and then into the toddlers hand. He gets the gist and pours the coins onto the performer, who tries a happy noise by way of thanks.

It's very rewarding to say that they sit and do nothing all day.

Before anyone involved can blink, a man in a hoodie has ran forward and snatched the mother's bag, grabbing it just as she's put the purse back in. Before she can react, he's ran a good 2 meters out of reach. So she does the next best thing, which is screach "MY BAG!" at the top of her voice. Apart from her scream, the situation looked so calm it would be difficult to ascertain that something had even happened.

I could intervene and stop the theif without revealing myself, but I have a better plan that will make the theif look stupid and the citizens of Alto Mare look brilliant. "I got this!" I telepath to Latias before she intervenes, and fly back over to Bianca's group, telepathing Bianca the moment she's in range. The bag thief will end up running right past them and escape around the museum at any second.

"Bianca! Bag snatcher! Get Emily!"

Bianca picks it up immidiatly, doesn't question that fact that my voice seemingly randomly appeared in her head, and doesn't even hesitate in jumping up and pointing at the hooded figure. "BAG SNATCHER!"

Said bag thief hears this and changes course as Emily quickly reacts and literally jumps up and towards him, rolling in the air and landing at the bottom of the steps with another roll, springing to her feet and giving chase to the perpetrator.

The woman who's bag it is (as well as about twenty other slack jawed tourists) watch in amazement as a tracksuited Emily starts to catch up with the theif.

Just as he reaches a bridge out of the square, Emily catches up, and it's as good as game over. With a lunge, she launches a kick at his heels, knocking him forwards and towards the pavment. He puts out his hands to protect himself, and uses them to do a roll and get right back to his feet, clearly experienced in the art of running away [AN: It's called parkour, and was invented by the French. It is, after all, the art of running away]

This doesn't disuade Emily, who launches another kick at his ribs, knocking him into the side of the bridge. He grabs it with his left hand and pulls himself up, now stood facing her, on the side of the bridge.

Emily doesn't gave him time to run away, and launches a (somewhat overzellous) spinning 360 degree double kick into his guts, sending him over the edge of the bridge. If the moment had a catchphrase from a film, it would be "THIS. IS. SPARTAAAA!". But Emily doesn't want him to get away and so skips that bit.

Just before he starts falling, she grabs the bag from the him and pulls it off his arm, rescuing it from when he starts falling into the canal, which he does with an almighty SPLASH!

It's only at that point Emily realizes every human and almost every pokemon in a 50 foot radius is dead silent and looking right at her.

She raises the bag above her head and asks the fivety odd audiance, in a voice which sounds so full of anger and testosterone you'd swear it was coming from some kind of burly tatooed man with muscles wider than my neck.

"WHO'S BAG IS THIS?"

The woman who's bag it was sheepishly raises a hand after a few seconds of nervous silence.

"It...t...t...s... M.. M... M... Mine..."

Emily dashes towards her (doing various gymnastic tricks as she does, just for show), before handing her the bag. "Here you go!" She says in a much more friendlier (and by that I mean girly) voice. The woman takes it with a treming hand, before reaching in and pulling out ten pokedollars. "Th... Th... Thanks... Her... Here's a t... t... tip..."

But Emily just walks away from her and towards Bianca's group, the attention being more than enough of a reward.

"So awesome..." Latias telepaths me as I fly back over. While I followed the action, she stayed where she was, floating just above the human crowd.

As the day starts to get even closer to night, we stay to watch the street performers, one of which was a man trying to breathe fire better than his companion charisard. One by one, street lamps start to pop on as the sky starts to darken. We must have been floating there a good 3 hours, when Latias announces she wants to go back to Bianca, who left for home about an hour ago.

"Okay, you can go back... I wanna stay a little longer. Just stay high up"

"Okaydokey!" And she flys right up into the sky. As bad as her sense of direction is, she can always find her way back to the garden.

I don't really want to stay and watch the mimes, but it's a good way to get Latias out of the way so I can have some 'me time'. And by 'me time', I mean go hunting.

It's not hunting for me, though. I have a plan. What I'm going to do is find the rarest and tastyist pokemon I can find, kill it, and take it back to Latias as a gift. Then, whilst she eats it (thinking how amazing I am for putting all the effort into finding it), I'm going to tell her how I want to be her mate.

Ordinarily, I'd do this in an attempt to outshine the competition, but there's not been much of that, so I haven't done it often enough, I recon. Which could be why she hasn't approached me.

As I fly out to the sea, I recollect one of the times this was the case...

Latias and me were playing in the garden just after Bianca was born, when her dad returned home with a gift for baby Bianca, a big and shiny rattle.

Of course, he'd also got one for Latias too, what with her jelous nature. As he presented it to her, her eyes lit up and she looked really happy with it, before giving him a lick on the cheek and a little happy air-dance. The way she was looking at him marked him out as opposition to me, even though he was completely the wrong species. In the end I suppose it was just jealousy that he was getting more attraction then me.

Anyway, I decided to get Latias something that was more shiny, and possibly nice-smelling too. Females love things that smell nice. But all I could find that was shiny was discarded sweet wrappers, CD's (with their rainbow patterns) and associated bits of metal scrap, which looked dangerous. In the end I eventually found something that was kind-of what I was looking for. It had the same rainbow pattern of the CD's, but it was triangle shaped, about 10cm big and it's points were rounded. I took it back in my mouth and presented it to her infront of Lorenzo and infant Bianca, the first of which identified it as a slightly rare rock. Latias thourght it was shinyer than the rattle though, so I must have dissuaded her attention from Bianca's dad. I got a head rub and an even better air-dance. She's still got the triangle, on a shelf in our room, next to other interesting shiny things (an alarming amount of which are sweet wrappers).

Back to the present, and I think I'm far enough out from land that I'll find a few things she hasn't had very often. I plummet down and into the ocean and just like that I'm in the water. It's an entirely different world here. The sounds are more muted, the smells are less vibrent and it's a lot darker. I can see in the dark, so it's not really an issue, but it still sets the atmosphere.

Now to choose Latias' present...

There are plenty of Magicarp, but that's more of a slap in the face then a present. They are a completely average water type, and as such taste completely average. They're more of a snack food then a present. Hence why I only have them if I'm actually hungry.

As it happens, I'm hungry now. As I swim downwards, I aim for the bright orange scales that have got to be the worst version of camouflage ever, keeping my mouth open.

Being completely dumb, the Magicarp doesn't even realize I exist until it's in my mouth, at which point it stops being prospective prey and starts being actual lunch. I bite down on it's side - with a mixture of a snapping and a squelching noise - and it doesn't even struggle, that's just how slow they are. Some bits of it won't even realise that it's brain dead for another two or three minutes. Example? Despite the fact I've severed the fish version of a spine, it's tail fins are still moving backwards and forwards, like nothings even happened. They'll continue to do that until the supply of blood to the muscles stops, a phenomenon that experts in the field call 'frankinfish'.

I continue to swim downwards, the act of doing so keeping the ex-Magicarp in my mouth, which I eat as I go, bones and all. The taste is completely average, the muscle tasting OK but the skin bordering on sour at some parts. The bones are thin and so flexible as to be unnoticeable.

"FOCUS" I say to myself. I'm here to get Latias a present. And it's got to be rare as possible. As it's food, it doesn't necessarily have to be pretty or shiny, just tasty. This is going to be difficult as the chances of those type of thing not already being eaten are low. The good news is, the deeper I go, the less pokemon there are, and so the liklyhood of finding rare ones are greater. Some pokemon have limits as to how deep they can go because of the pressure, but that isn't a problem for me or Latias, we don't know why.

Relincanth. The word pops into my head from something on TV. "Relincanth; the Longevity Pokémon. Relicanth is covered in stone-like scales, which allow it to endure the pressure of the deep ocean"

Hard scales will make it difficult to bite, and there can't be that many of them, since I've only seen a few that look like the picture on the TV during that feature on them. If I kill something that's rare AND difficult to find, Latias WILL be impressed. Odds are it'll taste nice too. And if it's got scales, they might even look pretty. Essentially, it's the perfect gift.

Well, since they can survive high pressures, they are more likely to be swimming along the ocean floor where it too deep for most predators to go.

Most of them...

I keep swimming downwards, and by the time I reach the bottom I'm almost done with the Magicarp. Eating it has slowed me down, but it's not like I'm rushing.

I think the best tactic to hunt for them would be to lie on the ocean floor and wait for one to swim near. If I find a groove in the ground, I can lay my body in that and flatten my wings out on top. That way, my wings are disguised enough what with being blue, and I can set off in an instant and grab one should it come near.

I find a decent indentation in the mud at the bottom of the ocean, about 900 meters down. The pressure pushing down on me is immense, but I barely notice. I'm using some psychic effort to keep myself from floating upwards though, but not much.

I settle down into the indentation and wait, wings flat, neck straight and eyes peeled. I'm looking the dark blob in a black ocean that indicates something nearby. I can't use aura, it doesn't work well in water for some reason, but my eyesight is fine for this task, really.

I'm feeling concious about my exposed back, though. Anything could dive down and attack, and I won't be able to roll to the side. Then again, only me, a few other legends and Relincanth can go this deep, I'm sure, so unless the almighty kyogre decides to have a go at me, I think I'll be fine. Hopefully.

While I wait for my pray, I ponder this water-type relation. There is a myth that me and kyogre are somehow related, which isn't very logical as I'm a dragon/psychic type and kyogre is a water type, which is one of dragon's nemisis. Where the logic does come in is that Mine and Latias' supposed duties is for us to guard the ocean (well, the bit around Alto Mare, arceus forbid it flood again...) on behalf of Luigia. Since Kyogre is also a guardian of the sea, it linked in that we somehow help him. Then, because humans can't help but find patterns in everything: "Both Latios and Kyogre are blue, therefore they are related". If you can't tell, I'm not exactly convinced with that.

And why do humans assume that legendaries hold meetings? Granted , they MIGHT have done. But I just dont see it working... It's not like, "Oh, Latios, it's your turn to guard the east, Latias, you sleep in the garden and act all mysterious. Let's throw a myth in there, Luigia, do something irrational, give the mortals something to think about. Groudon? We haven't had an earthquake for a while? Pencil one in for 5:20 on Wednesday.". The whole 'council of the greats' just doesn't seem feasible. We're animals, not accountants...

My mental rant is cut short when I see a blur. A spot in the blackness that's darker then it's surroundings. Something is blocking the minimal light from the surface. It looks the same size as a Relincanth. I can smell something, though, and it's not the typical water pokemon. Not a sharpedo or a tentacool, both would be flat in this pressure. There can't be much else it can be: it's too small for a Wailmer or anything like that.

It's swimming closer though, and I ready myself to leap out and grab it, keeping care to stay still and not startle and make it turn tail. I'd be able to catch up, but it would be better if I didn't have to. It's going to swim right over me if it carries on on its current course.

It does, and the moment I see the red spot on it side, It's identity is confirmed and I pounce, a flurry of mud and bubbles left in my wake. I've not measured it myself, but the Relincanth must have been about 3 meters above me and 4 away, and by the time I've left I'm practically already there. Lightning envies my speed.

The Relincanth does an instinctive dart to the side, but it's a terribly predictable move and I correct myself instantly, my jaw already open and waiting for the hapless fish to effectively jump into my mouth. Which it does.

The moment it's stony scales scrape my teeth. Much to my suprise, there isn't that 'scale-breaking' sensation that I expected, and for that moment I think that I've quite literally bitten off more than I can chew. But my front teeth are larger then the back, and the animal is stuck fast in this effective cage, regardless of how hard it flapps it's fins. It's front and back are sticking out the left and right side of my mouth, and my very front teeth have only gotten to about its mid-section, but it's chances of escape still range from zero to nil.

Satisfied that it won't be escaping, I keep my bite and psychic back up to the surface, content with this somewhat un-challenging kill. I can't tell right now, but from the smell it should taste good. Latias will be impressed.

I break through the surface and back into the air, Relincanth still in mouth. Speaking of, it's STILL trying to struggle out of my tight bite. I don't want to bite through its scales though, they actually look quite nice, even though they're a funny shade of gray/brown, not normally the most attractive set of colors.

I growl and shake my head rapidly left and right until it's stopped flapping about. This normally kills them off without actually doing any damage that affects the taste. It's worked this time, and pulse I can just about detects in it's neck goes from hyper to dead, with no surface damage.

I stop shaking my head and start flying back home, intent on showing this Latias as soon as possible. It's fresh, after all.

When it comes to wild meat, it has to be either fresh or kept away until it smells nice enough. In between, it just tastes 'meh'. Of course, leave it too long and it either deteriorates into an unapatising mush or a member of the human family will smell it and order you to either eat it or throw it away, even though it's still got another few days until it's perfectly aged. Like Lorenzo's cheese. You've either got to have it fresh: as milk, or wait for it to solidify into the cheese you want. Otherwise it doesn't taste as good.

Anyway, I make it to the garden, and dive down to the back door, the darkness and my speed camouflage enough as the make me invisible to nearby humans. I swoop down and arrive at the shut (but not locked) back door. Latias should be inside, probably having her cider with Lorenzo or chatting to Bianca or something. Wait...

How do I tell Bianca and Lorenzo! What will they say?!

The sudden doubts enter my head. Of course, both know that me and Latias will have to be mates at some point, but if they're there when I give her the fish, how will they know what I'm saying and how will I explain and what will they do and how will they-

Actually, why should they care, and even if they did, why should I care about what they think? They're not even in the same animal kingdom as me.

I use my snout to move the handle of the door down, then fly forwards, opening the back door without having to even draw out a paw. The door swings inwards and I fly through, slamming it back shut with my tail feathers once I'm through.

Fish still in mouth, I fly through the kitchen door and into the hallway. I can hear voices in the living room, so Latias is most likely in there. There's a deep voice, which must be Lorenzo. A higher, harsher voice which is just like Bianca's. And although I can't hear her, I can sense Latias' aura in the room. So just like I expected, they are all in there, probably having a nice social drink. There might be better times to approch Latias, but at the end of the day it's better sooner rather then later.

The door is shut, though, and the handle slopes downward, so I can't lever it with my snout. I could psychic it, but it might freak Bianca out because I normally just ask to be let in and she might think it's an intruder if I don't.

Instead, I just shout up for someone to open the door. "Bianca? Lorenzo? Door!" It sounds slightly different as I can't move my jaw because of the fish in my mouth. Not that it matters, because to them it just sounds like a normal cooing noise. But they should still understand the fact that I'm outside and want to go inside.

No one's come to open the door though, so I fly right up to and wedge my snout in the door frame where it should open, and shout louder. "BIANCA! LORENZO! DOOR! PLEASE! I WANT TO C-"

The door opens, with a moderately angry Bianca stood there, one hand on the door, the other on her hip. "Yeah yeah, stop shouting. Come in then...". I'm hovering about half a meter off the ground, so I have to push past Bianca's legs before I can actually get into the living room.

"Thanks!" I coo back as she opens the door the entire way.

Suddenly she screams out and tries to close the door even though I'm still in the doorway. I yelp as the door bashes against my side and drawn back wings, dropping Latias' gift in the process. For some reason, Bianca squeals even louder.

"Ah! He's got something! Stop, Back, Back Back Back!" She's screaming, referencing the fact that I've done the unspeakable and braught food I've killed myself into the house. In retrospect, a bad idea.

When I drop it, It lands on the floor with a 'thunk!', and Bianca squeals even louder.

"AH! IT'S NOT DEAD! KILL IT! KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!"

I'm confused by this, it's most definitely dead: I've bitten it, shook it to pieces and flown it through the air and out of the water for about 5 minutes. It's a fish. It doesn't have a pulse. It's almost certainly dead. Though perhaps the act of dropping it on the floor made its fins flop about, giving the illusion it was still trying to escape.

Eventually, Bianca stops cawing long enough to hold a coherent sentence. "Latios, pick it up!". I oblige, happy that's she's not hit me on the snout or anything. I duck down and pick the Relincanth up with my mouth again, teeth making clacking noises against the stoney scales. I'll be honest, though, I was expecting her to be proud that I'd managed to catch a moderately rare pokemon.

"Now OUT!", she says nudging my snout with her knee, slowly maneuvering me out of the room.

Once I've flown back enough, she sets out the rules - "Eat it or put it back in the sea, just DON'T bring it in here again!" -and the door slams shut.

I try to shout up and reason with her. "Bianca! Please? It's a present!". She doesn't understand though, and thinks I'm just asking to be let in. "NO! Take it outside first!"

"Please?"

"No!"

"Really Please?"

"NO!"

I'll admit, this isn't exactly going way I'd planned it...

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Do you capitalize the name if it's no longer animate? Example: we don't capitalize the names of inanimate things (unless they have a given name associated with them). So whilst living, Magicarp is animate and so should be capitalized. Once dead, it's no longer animate, so do you still capitalize the start letter? We don't capitalize 'pasta', and that's the name of a food... Just some food for thourght...

Oh! I haven't said this in a while: Please review! This story is nearing its climatic cinematic climax, and there's another story cued up after this one, but it awesomeness mostly relies on my motivation, which is greatly increased by reviews (even if they are negative: at least people are reading!)


	24. Chapter 24: Drink

Train was delayed 3 days in a row last week while I was on it, so I had more writing time and you get this chapter early!

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It's not fair, of course. I can see why she's objecting: Dead things can carry a lot of nasty viruses that we're immune to but humans can still get. But that's only stuff that's been dead a while, and this is pretty much as fresh as they get.

And anyway, even if it wasn't fresh, Bianca lets Jay in the house! Why can't I bring in my own 'disease-ridden bag of dirt', which is what Bianca has called some of my kills in the past. It's quite demotivating when you think about it.

I fly back through to the kitchen and remember I closed the door when I came in. So it's now closed and I can't push it open because it's a pull door. I can't grab the handle with my mouth because of the fish and I can't call for Bianca to open it because she'll just think I'm calling to be let in. So I'll have to psychic it, I guess.

One tiring flash of psychic energy later and the door is swinging inwards on its hinges. I draw my wings back and fly through, leaving it open so I can fly back through later. But now I've got to find somewhere to keep the Relincanth, until I can get a minute with Latias.

It's quite aromatic, and will probably attract every wingull for miles around. Especially as it's not a common food. And I didn't go through all the effort finding it just for a stupid wingull to take it off me.

While I think, I make a sad little whining noise. Bianca might hear it and feel sorry. Might.

I can bury it easily enough, but diglet still can get to it and I don't know if they eat fish. They shouldn't, but I don't want to run the risk with such a valuble gift. Plus anything'll eat anything if it's hungry enough. I could hide it in a tree, but flying types could track it down and steal it easily enough. I can't put it in the lake in the garden, even though that would keep it moist, because water types could quite easily track it.

I look around for inspiration. Aside from a few trees, a pile of paving slabs, some garden furniture and a small patio, the garden behind the house has nothing to hide the Relincanth, Latias' present.

I'm genuinely stuck for this one, I can't think of a single safe place to hide it. I suppose, though, as long as other pokemon can't get to it, it doesn't matter if it's in sight. So if I can just arrange some kind of shelter for it, that should be good enough. I look at the spare paving slabs set aside on the patio and it gives me an idea.

I set the fish carefully down on the stone, next to the paving slabs. Next, I pick up some of the paving slabs with my mouth and drop them around the fish until it is surrounded on all sides by slabs that stack at tall as the fish is. Finally, I put two of the concrete squares on top of the pillar-like construction, and the cage for the fish is complete.

The slabs will be too heavy for any typical flying type to lift, ground types won't be able to dig through them because they're concrete, and any pokemon that can fit through the tiny holes where the slabs don't join up won't have teeth powerful enough to get through the Relincanth's scales. It's a brilliant idea, and I'm sure that nothing will get at it until tomorrow. Well, perhaps Latias might smell it and get to it, but as it's her present that's not exactly a bad thing. Though I'd still like to present it to her.

As I fly lazily back to the house, I consider what would be the best time to tell Latias, other than now. I'd like it to be in the garden where she can have the fish without being yelled at, and it'd be nice if Bianca was there too. No doubt she'd think it as cute. Lorenzo's suprise party tomorrow seems as good a place and time as any...

I make it through the door and close it with my tail fins again, having now done that successfully two times in a row. I'm getting good at that.

I fly through to the living room door and it's still closed. For the second time, I have to shout to be let in.

"Lorenzo! Door! Bianca! I've left the fish outside! Can I come in? Please"

I hear movement from behind the door and fly right up to it, ready to fly through when it's opened. Bianca opens it to about half of what it needs to be for me to fly through, then stops, glaring down at me. "Have you got anything?" She asks, referring to dead things. Which I've already said that I've left outside.

"No, Not got anything!"

Bianca mumbles as she opens the door wider, letting the rest of my neck through. "I'll hold you to it". She steps to the side to open the door even wider and I can fly all the way through, which I do, brushing her skirt with the blue shielding on my folded in arm as I do.

I fly over to my spot on the piano and set down, greatful I can finally stop flying.

Lorenzo and Latias are still talking, regardless of my entry. Latias is in her pokemon form, 'sat' on the sofa to the left of the piano. She's resting her rear on the sofa cushion, wings splayed out on the back rest, and cooing at Lorenzo. By the sounds of it, he's still trying to figure out how we speak, the Lati Language.

Latias has her arms out and is doing various gestures to help her in this task. She points a claw at the triangle on her chest, then says "I" in a very clear and pronounced coo. Lorenzo nods, and Latias points the claw at Lorenzo, as Bianca goes to sit back down next to Latias.

"You" Latias coos in another pronounced way, trying to be as clear as possible for Lorenzo. He's not fully getting it though.

"So 'Lorenzo' is a short noise that goes moderatly low to slightly higher in a short space of time?"

He thinks she was saying his name, when actually she was just saying the relatively simpler word "You". She shakes her head and Bianca facepalms, clearly having had to endure this miming for quite a while.

Lorenzo doesn't have a hope in learning our language because of the simple fact that no human has ears sensitive enough to pick up the higher frequencies that we use to portray even the simplist of words. So unless he's developed pokemon hearing, this excercise is pointless. Not that that is going to stop him from trying.

Bianca gets up suddenly, making Latias jump a bit, startled.

"Right, everyone is here. How about I get drinks?" she bellows. It's not said particularly nicely either. I note that the moment Bianca is removed from friends, she becomes grumpy like she is now.

Lorenzo looks like he's about to take offense at Bianca's stroppy attitude, then decides the offer of her fetching a drink is better. He takes a moment to decide, but eventually speaks. "Er... Yes please. I'll have a black reep" - that's the name of one of Lorenzo's faverouted dark beers - "Latias is having a cider" - she must have cleaned up the bathroom, then - "and Latios will be having the same as me" - Excellent.

Bianca barges out of the room and Lorenzo and Latias resume their talk. "So that noise means 'you'?

One positive coo later and Lorenzo does a wise man nod. "I see". He turns to look at me. "So how's Latias' name said?" he asks, a question none too difficult to answer. "Latias" I say, which makes Latias' ears instinctively pick up and face in my direction. Lorenzo looks back at Latias and asks her the same question, but with my name.

Latias responds with a plain and simple, "Latios", in a rather eloquent mannor if I might add.

"But... They sound the same?" he remarks. I disagree, they don't really. At least, not to us. If anything, they sound less like each other than the human way of saying them. The whole sound is shifted down in my name, for starters. Generally, predomenently masculine pokemon have names that are lower pitched than those that are mostly female. Although this shift might not be detectable to Lorenzo's aged ears.

"Your only human, Lorenzo. There are bits you can't hear" Says Latias outloud, and entirely in Lati. Which Lorenzo has no hope in ever understanding. If he had any head hair, I think he would be pulling it out right now, by the confused look on his face.

He's saved from more confusion by the door being kicked open by Bianca, who had to use her foot to open the door as she's holding three drinks in her hand. One is light colored and looks fizzy, two are dark and with a froth on the top. Bianca is mumbling under her breath about "someone could have at least opened the door". Considering she didn't ask us to, it's a bit of an unfair statment, but as she's holding my drink I don't want to contradict her.

She sets mine down on a non-covered bit of the piano and gives Lorenzo his, before putting Latias down on the table in the centre first.

Now, before you decide to judge the fact that yes, I drink alcohol, let me just put this out there: It's made of entirely natural ingredients, can be beneficial and not to mention, very flavorsome. And as mentioned before, the alcohol tolerance of my body is greater than that of a human, normally. So I don't want anyone thinking that I'd accidentally hyper beam a picture of a foe whilst drunk, because I'd have to drink a tonne to get to that point, and hyper beams are difficult things to do which require lots of concentration. I doubt I'd be able to do a Water Gun while drunk.

Anyway...

Bianca leaves the room and returns a second later with her own drink. Its similar to Latias, except it's red in color instead of golden. None of us are alchoholics either, before you start pointing fingers. I think we all have the right to relax with a nice beverage at the end of the day.

Lorenzo raises his glass. "Cheers!" He triumphantly says, some sort of human tradition. We're supposed to raise our glasses and say cheers too, but Latias still manages to mess that up: While me and Bianca give a half hearted "cheers" in response, Latias goes ahead and shouts "Hurray!" at the top of her voice.

Bianca glares at her and she immediately calms down. "Shhhh!".

In human terms, the hissing like noise means 'be quiet'. In pokemon terms, it's a sound quite a lot of pokemon - Latias and myself included - make that preempt an attack. Like growling, only a bit more... Prevalent? Is that the word? Probably... I'm not a linguist.

That said, both me and Latias instinctively take defensive measures, flattening our wings, raising our ears, focusing our eyes and snapping our necks towards the source of the noise, which was in this case, Bianca.

She realises her mistake and apologises. "Sorry you two, but, keep it down. Cubone had a long day today and he's gone upstairs to sleep."

I'm still a bit spooked by the noise, and Latias still looks on edge, but when we hear that Cubone has fallen asleep, we can't help but feel... Nice. The fact that he's just fallen asleep without waiting for one of us to go with him shows he trusts Bianca, and knows we'll keep him safe.

Bianca and Lorenzo take a sip of their drinks. Me and Latias have a more difficult time with it, and both opt to levitate bubbles of beverage into our mouths. Bianca sees this out of the corner her eye and can't help but pass a comment after she's had her sip.

"You know, it's still really weird when you guys do that..."

Latias gulps the bubble of cider down and does a giggling noise at Bianca's expense. "Well, unless you'd like to see me pour it down my front that Lorenzo's just cleaned..." She says outloud, even though only I understand. Now she mentions it though, I'm still curious.

"Why did you want a shower anyway?" I ask her, the question still perplexing me.

"Well, My ears felt a bit, clogged up, you know? And the lake doesn't really help...". She's got a point. Bathing in the lake is all well and good, but according to Bianca that makes earwax hard and clogs up your ears. So I can see why Latias may have wanted a shower. Just.

"Hey, you haven't cleaned your ears in a while!" She shreiks out loud, flying up off the sofa and over to me. Bianca laughs, having fallen back when Latias removed her wing. Lorenzo stays sitting back, either too tired to take action or too interested to interrupt. I wish he would though, because I know what's happening next.

Latias lowers her snout next to my head and starts licking the side of my ear, trying to clean it for me. I normally don't mind, but Bianca and Lorenzo are watching, and I don't think they need cleaning just yet. I can hear fine, after all.

"Let off!" I shout at her, only slightly angry. She's my sister, after all. It's part of her job, to clean and look after me. But it's still a bad time. "Nope!" She gleefully says, the word super loud as her mouth is right next to my ear. Neither of us mind cleaning the other because it's what siblings do. It gives us a good feeling. But it's still inappropriate for her to start cleaning them now.

"I said NO!" I shout a bit louder, trying not to growl. But she really is being annoying. I look at Bianca and Lorenzo, both of whom are smirking at my discomfort.

"They are a bit dirty..." Latias continues, breaking from licking my ear long enough to speak.

I quickly move my head to the side, out of her way, stopping her from continuing. She just follows my head and carries right on, with a "Nope!" as her only expression.

"I said, LEAVE OFF". This time I growl and she backs off, knowing that when I growl, I mean it. At least, that's what I thourght. Growling often comes before an attack.

"You wouldn't hurt me!" She says in a silly high pitched voice, before carrying right back on.

I don't mind the ear cleaning in itself, it's actually quite nice. She massages my ears with the point of her snout at the same time, and it feels really nice, in the same way getting into a warm room on a cold day feels nice. But I'd prefer outside, away from Lorenzo and Bianca. No particular reason, other than instinct is telling me that's where we should do things like bathing or tidying each other up.

I look at Bianca, who can't hold back what she wanted to say anymore, and bursts out in a teasing voice.

"I think _somebody's_ heat is starting" She says, emphasizing the 'somebody' to make it clear she means 'Latias'. The red dragon ignores this childish comment and carries on cleaning my ears.

I suspect Bianca may be right. Whenever Latias enters her heat, she always gets really affectionate, spontaneous and slightly illogical (though how you'd tell from normal I don't know, ha ha), which she certainly has been today: Illogical showers and affectionately cleaning my ears even though it's completely the wrong time (she normally cleans them at the right time, when we're outside, during the day)

Most male pokemon would be pleased about that situation: They get more attention, more teasing and a possible mate. But with Latias, it's just annoying. One moment she's happy, the next, you get a mist ball to the face. And whatever mood she's in, it's always directed solely at me, being the only suitable male around. Woo-hoo.

Plus she always steals my food.

On the other hand, since I just got her a present to pursuade her to be my mate, I suppose I shouldn't be complaining if she is entering her heat.

I'm still stuck with her trying to clean my ears either way. And I've already moved, shouted and growled, so not much else will make her stop. I decide to just let it be, because it's defiantly not unpleasant, after all.

Bianca and Lorenzo quickly get bored of watching Latias licking my ear and start their own conversation, which I can only half hear because of Latias blocking off my right ear.

"Where'd you go today then?" Asks Lorenzo.

"Oh, with friends. Hung out, that kind of thing..."

"Anything interesting happen?"

"Oh! Yeah, Emily stopped a bag-snatcher!"

Lorenzo now doesn't need to talk for the next 20 minutes as Bianca relays in vivid detail Emily's actions in stopping the bag theif.

While Bianca tells the story, Lorenzo sits and sips his beer, nodding at all the right places, and frowning in all the places that he disapproves of.

No one likes bag snatchers. But Lorenzo dislikes them more than most. Since he works at a tourist attraction (well, workED), the money he received depended on how many tourists walked through the door. So if a local steals a tourist's bag and the tourist don't get it back, that tourist will tootle on back home and tell everyone they know about their bad experience at Alto Mare. The news will spread and then less people would visit, meaning less money and less people to talk to for Lorenzo.

So he looks really quite happy when Bianca gets to the bit where Emily kicks the theif into the canal.

After she returned the bag, me and Latias both watched the man get pulled from the canal by officer Jenny in a speed boat. He was put in handcuffs and taken away, after being restrained on the floor of the boat by said angry officer Jenny's boot. He got everything he deserved, in my opinion.

Latias finally stops cleaning my right ear, and starts on my left. I frown and Bianca just giggles. "Awww..."

Lorenzo looks at the clock and speaks up in a surprised tone. "Is that the time! We've missed the start!" and he leans forward for the TV remote in the table, pointing it at the TV and pressing a few buttons. He gets it to the channel he wants and sits back as the TV program cuts to a woman walking into an office type of room.

It's one of Lorenzo's faveroute programs, an 'action police drama' where a detective has to solve various mysteries to find out who stole/stabbed the diamond/old lady. He likes it because it's got a clever plot and a lot of logical thinking puzzles. Me, Latias and Bianca like it because it's got bad guys who shoot people and make stuff explode. Which is 'uber cool' according to Bianca. It's also quite funny.

Lorenzo sits back and starts sipping his beer as the woman starts explaining to a guy sat at a desk about how a man has been stabbed, but there's no murder weapon.

The shot cuts to a man sat at his desk, with an Abra meditating in the corner of the room. The Abra never actually does anything on the program, but it's supposedly there to make the man look more intellectual. I for one think that a beard would do a much better job.

Latias finally stops cleaning my other ear and goes back down to 'sitting' on the sofa. Bianca leans forwards so Latias can put her wing behind her, before leaning back and resting on it.

Me and Latias both resume watching TV and 'sipping' our drinks. The man who was at the desk is now looking at a dead body in a forest, with a neat, round stab wound in its stomach. It's winter during the program, and there's snow everywhere, except the body, even though it's apparently been there overnight. Someone on the FX department must have forgotten that snow would cover the body too...

Latias' drink all of a sudden starts levitating up off the table and through the air, before setting down next to mine on the piano, a few centimeters from my snout. I look at her quizzically. "I'm don't want it any more" she says out loud in a hushed tone, but Bianca still whispers "QUIET!" at us. Why?

I look back and the screen and realize why. The music has more violins in it, and that always means something startling is going to happen.

Sure enough, the violins raise to a crescendo and then die down, but nothing happened. Wait for it...

The detective tells a plastic suit wearing woman to 'take the body to pathology' and just as he starts walking away, there's a huge BOOM! and the body explodes, chucks of special effect human corpse flying everywhere in a somewhat cheesy manor.

Bianca bursts out laughing and I can't help but think she must have something wrong with her if she finds video of a member of her species exploding for no reason funny. Then again, it's obviously fake, and it happened so unexpectedly you can't help but think the director was feeling a bit psychotic when he wrote that bit in the script.

Whereas Bianca is full on laughing, Lorenzo is doing a little chuckle. I feel a bit left out, and do a chuckling noise just to fit in.

As the program continues I finish my own drink and start on Latias', developing a bit of a headache in the progress. Correct me if I'm wrong (although you wouldn't know), but I THINK today is one of those days where my alcohol tolerance is dropped. A voice in my head tells me to 'man up' and I comply, starting on Latias drink.

It's certainly sweeter than the beer, but it's also blatantly artificial. I can see why Latias likes it, as she loves sweet things, but the artificial taste it has to it isn't to my exactly preference. Then again, I'd hate it to go to waste...

Bianca and Lorenzo both finish their drinks as the 3rd advert comes on, and Lorenzo notices I have two glasses near me instead of one. He spots Latias' drink is missing and puts two and two together, to make five.

"Latios, Have you stolen Latias' drink?" He says whilst wagging his finger, clearly not being seriously mad.

"No! She gave it me! Honest!" I yelp out, though immediately afterwards I do what could possibly be the world's biggest hiccup, which somewhat dents my argument.

Because we drink bubbles that were levitating in the air, we also gulp down a lot of air with the liquid, meaning we hiccup more. It's got nothing to do with being intoxicated, but Lorenzo won't understand that.

The hiccup in itself is quite an interesting noise. It starts deep in my body and travels all the way up through my neck, before escaping out of my mouth in a much higher pitch than you'd think I'd be able to actually obtain.

According to Bianca, though, this noise is incredibly cute, and she smiles when I do it. Lorenzo does too, but I think it's because the hiccup validates his assumption I stole Latias' drink, in his eyes at least.

The TV comes off the adverts and carries on with the final part of the show, in which the detective realizes that the murder wepon was an icicle, and they couldn't find it because it had melted in the warm body. The killer then packed the body with explosives and set it to go off when someone said the word 'pathology', which would have killed the detective but didn't because... I don't understand that exact bit. Either way, the detective is now chasing the guy across some rooftops, having developed remarkable skill in running and jumping all of a sudden.

The bad guy (who is being convicted on extremely shaky evidence in my opinion) is running away with the aid of a Manky, who is making the best routes and acting as a trapeze at all the required points.

In a very cliche ending, the bad guy gets trapped at a corner of a building, unable to jump anywhere. The detective guy claims he intended that all along, then has a relaxed conversation with the bad guy for about five minutes before the bad guy actually reveals that he has a gun. Then for some unknown reason, the bad guy shoots himself in the head, and he falls down the side of a building. The detective walks away from the place where the man was, dusting his jacket down before the credits roll on.

Lorenzo turns the TV down so we can talk. "I liked that one... very... Interesting" He says, like he's some kind of TV conesseur. It's nonsense, of course. The program was about stuff exploding and a bad guy killing people.

I decide to imitate him and put on the poshist voice I can muster, before squinting like I have a monocle on. "Ah yes, it was VERY interesting, what with the synopsis of hypothetical situations being integrated in so many eloquent ways... Yes... Quite...". I nod my head as I do this, trying to project the most posh look I can to the humans, who can't understand what I'm saying.

Latias giggles, clearly entertained by the fact I have no idea what I'm actually saying. If she finds it entertaining, I might as well carry on. After all, I DO need to show off more if I'm to persuade her to be my mate, which I suddenly realize needs to be a priority.

What do females like? Errr... Presents? I've already got her that fish, but I'm presenting that tomorrow. Dancing? I'm sure there's some kind of mate-dance that I should do, but I don't know how it goes. French? OH! Human females LOVE French people. I'm sure! Surely Latias will be really impressed that not only can I dance, but I can also speak French.

The voice in the back of my head chimes up, desperately trying to ruin my fun. 'Idiot, all psychic types can speak all languages. She can speak French too. And by the way, you can't dance.'

That voice is such a killjoy, he must be lying. After all, pokemon do mating dances all the time, and I AM a pokemon. And a legendary one at that... I fly up off the piano and levitate in front of the TV, so everyone can see, especially Latias. This show is for her, after all. Now for an actual dance... And I can't remember any. Lati's should have their own instinctive mating dance, but instinct has decided to abandon me for some reason.

So I'll do a human dance instead. Those are easy. I try copying the human dance that they call the Macarena, moving my arms around infront of me, but all that happens is Bianca bursts out laughing and Lorenzo gives me a confused stare. Latias just watches, face unreadable. She's CLEARLY deciding how attractive my dancing is. Time to up the romance a notch.

I try French, that's bound to clinch it. I look her dead in the eye and speak out loud with the best accent I can muster. "Mademoiselle, votre vinaigrette est mal synchronisé. Permettez-moi de vous aider hors de la table!".It's still a series of cooing noises, but this time their FRENCH cooing noises. Genius!

I have a feeling that I've said or done something completely wrong, because Latias also gives me a confused look. I think she's not seen the Macarena before. Yeah. That's got to be it. And she's just stunned by the amount of French I speak. It is, after all, the lovers language...

Speaking of lovers, I still need to tell her how I actually feel about her, since neither the French nor the dancing seem to be actually doing that. She's clearly lost touch with the aspect of animal attraction and dancing and stuff. So English. Native Lati. Oh, and dead serious. Just tell her how you feel... Yeah...

I fly up close to the ceiling, look her dead in those adorable eyes and try to tell her how much I want to be her partner...

"Latias... Nine out of Ten... Would Mate!"

I realize right after I say it that this is wholey inappropriate (judging by the shocked look on Latias' face), so I'm really relived when I misjudge the amount of room I've got above me, and try and fly upwards, but instead bang my head on the solid light fitting. I'm slightly aware of the fact I'm no longer hovering, before the impact with the light catches up with me and I black out...

* * *

This... Just got awkward for Latios. Poor guy. All he wants is a girlfriend... I know that feel bro. I KNOW THAT FEEL! *Sits in corner of the room, crying and stroking a selection of cats whilst listening to Adele* SOMEONE LIKE YOOOOOOOUUUUU!

This chapter was inspired not by my dream, but by my friend mike, who was so drunk last Tuesday that he started hitting on the coat rack. Just a shoutout to you, Mike. You are one crazy bas-

SOCIAL awkwardness out of the way, and I'd just like to thank everyone on 3,000 views and TEN followers! Whoot! Although looking at the statistics, more people have read chapter 17 then chapter 16. Who's skipping chapters? Mike, I'm looking at you...

Mike: "That is a damn fine coat rack..."

... Annnny Wayyyy...

Please read and review regardless as to if you like this or not! Also, if you DO like this, share with friends! (Social Networking Interactivity FTW.)


	25. Chapter 25: Awkward

I don't know why, but in this section of my mental incarnation, smell featured predominantly. Perhaps someone stank a bit the ward I was in was in. Anyway...

Sorry about the late update, I had a meeting with the chancellor George Osborne, who would say an awful lot to explain an awful little, but wouldn't detail why I have to pay tax to pay the government, even though I'm too young to decide which government I want to vote for. As a result I had to adhere to some security regs which meant posting was limited, as well as spend forever getting ready for the cameras (I was on the news. Whoever can identify me wins an internet). This chapter was ready a week ago.

During the publication block, I got more reviews:  
M Rating - Hmmm... Like I said, my employer reads this. So I might outsource some of the iffy bits to another author. Rest assured though, the sequal to this WILL have some form of lemon or M rating, even if I wasn't the one who wrote that particular bit.  
French - Indeed he does. I got my French-student sister to make me that one. Even I have no idea how correct it was or even what it says. As for Latias finding out... well... I'm not saying anything... Wish what you want for now :)

* * *

Urgh... My head... It's all... Bubbly? Bouncy? Bright?

None of those words seem to explain what exactly seems to be wrong with my head. A single word isnt going to cut it.. It's like... It's like a hitmonlee has done a few rounds sparring with my brain. Or Latias has hit me with a Hyper Beam...

I suddenly get a really, REALLY bad feeling. Like my gut is being stood on. Why? What happened? Why does my head hurt so bad? Why am I hungry all of a sudden? and Where am I anyway?

Well, the questions aren't going to answer themselves, and perhaps opening my eyes will at least help solve at least one of them. Like where I am. I open them...

And instantly close them again, the bright light from some unknown source stabbing into my retina. But the brief glance at the world outside the back of my eyelids at least confirms where I am.

My head appears to be resting on the coffee table in the living room. The rest of my body, therefore, is resting on the carpet, which still explains next to nothing about how I got here. Perhaps Latias will know.

The moment I think that, I get the wrenching feeling in my gut again, like it knows something I don't. Which is getting increasingly worrying.

Eventually, I decide that I need to find out what happened, and open my eyes to the blinding light. Okay, maybe not fully open them, but squint. Through one eye. Briefly. Okay, here goes.

The light is still incredibly bright, but it's not as bad as last time. I can see more, certainly. For starters, the piano, except someone's put away the drinks glasses... that we had there... last... night...

The penny drops, and it's a pretty heavy penny. I recall the exact events of last night, which were... unscrupulous to say the least. Did I actually say that to Latias? Did she understand me? By the look on her face, I'd say so. And dancing the Macarena? What was I thinking?

Of course, I WASN'T thinking. That's why I did it.

There's no sign of Bianca, or Latias, or Lorenzo. I think the biggest priority is finding them now. And apologizing to Latias. Definitely What I said... that was just... wrong. I hope it won't affect her decision when I ask her to be my mate at Lorenzo's party this afternoon... Wait! It's LORENZOS PARTY THIS AFTERNOON?!

"Bianca! Lorenzo? Anyone? Anyone home?" I shout. What's the point in getting up and looking if they'll find me easier than me having to fly around the entire house? But there's no response.

"HELLO!? BIANCA!? LATIAS!? LORENZO!?" I shout louder, a bit of worry creeping into my voice. What if something got to them while I wasn't there to guard them? Is that why no-one is responding? Oh Archeus!

I can't lie here and do nothing. I need to act! First things first, what time is it? It's normally about 8, when I wake up, so Bianca might still be asleep. But this isn't the case, because when I turn my head to look at the clock on the mantelpiece, it's 11 o'clock. ELEVEN!

I really have over-slept. But let's see... I can still smell toast in the room, but it's source was removed a few hours ago. So someone has had breakfast, in this room, and managed not to wake me, which is saying something since I'm naturally a light sleeper. I must have really been out cold, I never ignore the smell of food. But the breakfast must answer at least where Lorenzo is: Of course! He'll have gotten up and left for one of his final days working at the museum.

And then there's the party this afternoon. So Bianca and Latias are most likely in the garden, prepping that. Which is really where I should be too, in that case.

I hear the padding of fur on carpet near the door and rotate my entire body round, to face the door. I don't want to have to start flying yet and by the scent I can tell that the padding is coming from a friend. Specifically, a small, brown, Normal type friend.

As I rotate towards the door, Cubone walks in, dragging the ever-present bone behind him. He looks at me laid out on the table and to his credit doesn't even blink. He does, however he does rub the sleep out of one of his eyes with the hand that isn't holding the bone. It looks really cute when he does that...

"Hi Latios" he says in a tone which blatantly says 'I'm still sleepy'. "Your shouting woke me up. Where's Bianca?"

Aww, the little guy wants to see Bianca. He's really taken a liking to her, I can't help but think.

"I don't know, she might be in the garden. Want a lift?". I'm going anyway, it's not a major inconvenience for him to ride on my back. Quite the opposite, I'll enjoy it. Once I remove myself from the table, that is.

"Sure... Are you okay?" He asks, pointing out the fact that I'm struggling to rotate around so my stomach is facing the floor. Right now I'm sideways with my wings folded back, and while I could just levitate up and then turn, I'd prefer to at least start the day the right way up. I'm putting quite a lot of effort on my wing in an effort to flip myself, so I'm grunting when I respond to Cubone's question.

"Could be better. Last night didn't EXACTLY go as planned..."

Cubone pulls a face, not that I can tell what kind of face it is with the skull covering it. I do however detect some sarcasm when he speaks as I triumphantly right myself. "Really? I thought your natural place to sleep was the coffee table..."

"Shut it you, do you want a lift or not?"

"Sorry..."

"Whatever. Hop on."

He waddles over and does one of his surprisingly high jumps onto my back. My head is still on the coffee table, so even though I've just started to lift off, my head doesn't really leave the ground until I'm almost ready to fly.

I slowly set off around the table and through the door, My wings not quite squashing Cubone as I fold them back to get through. Then the little guy chimes up with an unexpected question that makes me hesitate.

"What's this about you and a Gardevoir anyway?" he asks as we go through the kitchen door. How does he even know about that? Either way, I don't blame him for making conversation, but it's a terrible question given the events of last night. I dodge around the point.

"Yeah, one was threatening Lorenzo so Latias headbutted her"

"Yeah. But why was she after Lorenzo? Don't tell me you weren't somehow involved..." He says, and when he says 'involved' he adds a certain time which implies something a lot more... Interesting...

"I wasn't. Who said it was a she?"

"I don't believe that for one second. Anyway, you called it a her. So?"

Acheus he's persistent! I suppose the truth won't hurt him though...

"She wanted to be my mate, but I said No, so she was kinda an-"

"WHAT?!" The incredulity in his voice is almost comic, even though the topic is serious. "You said No to a Gardevoir? That's just... Mad. Crazy... You do understand how the whol-"

"Well, I'm legendary and she's just... Normal. Imagine how awkward that would be"

"Yeah, but still... You pointed her in my direction though?"

"Oh yeah, of course. What with your manly essence and all..."

I tease him as I fly though the open back door, where I'm presented with some good news: The moment I'm over the threshold, I can still smell the strong odor of the fish, Latias' present, so nothing has taken it overnight. When I look, though, one of the top tiles has moved slightly, and I can detect Latias' scent on the corner of it, so she must have tried moving it at some point but either given up or been stopped.

The other bit of good news is that if Latias has tried moving the tile, it means that at least she is outside. So Bianca probably is too.

I fly over to correct the tile and to his credit, Cubone doesn't comment. Although his aura feels like it's smirking. One nudge with my snout and the tile is covering the entire fish again, guarding it from any other Pokemon.

I accelerate to a moderate pace and fly into the archway to the secret garden, thinking of what I'm going to do when I see Latias. Apologize for my behaviour last night? Rational, but difficult because it'll bring up what happened. Perhaps, if I pretend it never happened, she'll ignore it. If she's in her heat like Bianca suggested last night, she may have even taken it as a compliment: after all, she spends of time trying to look and smell nice, and the only reason she'd have is to attract a mate. So my comment could almost be seen as natural animal reaction, and not offensive at all. Really, it's just natural.

Actually, judging from the look on her face that is still vivid in my memory, that certainly isn't the case. Latias may have picked up the human 'feminist' attitudes, as I believe they may be called.

"You saving that fish for yourself?" Cubone asks.

"No, why? Do you want it?". I'm not going to give it him, but if he thinks it smells nice too, odds are Latias has got the perfect gift.

"Well, not if it's already taken."

"Well then it is. You'll see why though soon enough, don't worry"

I'm fairly sure he'll have added up the hints I've been dropping by now, but he just stays silent on the mate issue.

"Right... Was it difficult to catch?" He asks.

Hmm... Difficult? Nope. Time consuming? Yep. Considering the meat you get, it's only really good if someone else is expanding energy to catch it. Otherwise it's a waste of time, because in the length of time it took to catch that Relincanth, I could have caught a two Sharpedo, which are bigger and probably more nutritious.

"Not really. But it's not really a common thing, so it took a while to find. Why?"

"Nothing. Its just... I don't see how you can do that..."

"Do what?"

"Well, you know. Hunt stuff. Surely it's a bit off-putting having it wiggle about and stuff before you eat it?"

To be honest, that's never disturbed me so much as been a nuicence. It must be some kind of association thing: You don't see it as a pokemon anymore, It's just 'pray' or 'target'.

"Not really, No. But you eat meat, right? Wild meat?" I make a good point.

"Yeah, but it's not stuff l've caught myself. It was all scavenged stuff from other pokemon's kills..."

That's both logical and depressing. Of course, he's lower on the food chain, so he can't go and hunt. But at the same time, meat is life. You need meat to live. Some Pokemon can be solely herbivores, but the majority need some kind of protein from meat. So Cubone will eat berries, but also require meat to properly digest them. But as he can't hunt, the only remaining option is for him to scavenge other kills. At the same time, never being able to claim the kill your eating as yours? That's just depressing.

"It's not difficult you know, if you want me to teach y-"

"Thanks, but no. Its scraps and canned food in the foreseeable for me."

"Oh. Well... If you ever want anything catching for you..." There's not really much more I can say to such a defeatist response, so I just stay silent.

I've reached the end of the archway and am flying over the barrier between the balcony-like platform and the main pond, when a familiar smell catches my nose. It's vaguely familiar, but I can't place it...

Whatever it is, it reminds me of a threat. Cubone picks up on my raised feathers and all the other signs that I'm on edge.

"What's up? Aren't they here?"

I slow down and explain in a hushed voice. I can't remember exactly how it's a threat, but if it's still here, I know I don't want it finding me. "Quiet! I can smell something... I don't know what it is, but the last time I had that scent, something bad happened. It's faint though. So it might not be here..."

Cubone lays down on my back, which is somewhat useful in that he's causing less wind resistance and I can set off faster. It'll also be harder to spot him.

I go along the treetops, looking down for the source of the scent. But it's slowly being overpowered by the smell of Latias and Bianca. Not saying they stink or anything, but every animal has a distinctive smell and after living years with those two I can smell them a mile off. Same for Latias with me and Bianca. Bianca's sense of smell isn't good enough to say the same. Though if your trying to locate Latias, the best policy is probably to follow the trail of overturned furniture that she'll often leave in her clumsy wake.

As I reach the clearing with Latias and Bianca, the smell is totally overpowered and I can't trace it at all. It's funny I can't remember what it came from. Something tells me it was really familiar too...

There's not much else I can do as to the scent. I can't say what it's from or provide a reason I think it's threatening other than instinct, so I suppose the best I can do to prevent the threat from getting to either of the females is to be around them all the time, ready to step in if something tries to get to them.

I do a corkscrew round and down towards the clearing, where it looks like Bianca is setting up the tables that I took out yesterday. Most people wouldn't advise leaving tables or food out overnight, but the food is in plastic which pretty much every pokemon knows not to try and eat. Plus if we left it inside, Lorenzo would know we were stocking for something and his surprise would be ruined.

"BIANCA! HI! I'M AWAKE!" I shout down at her, but she just ignores me. As does Latias. I know their ignoring me because I'm definitely within even Bianca's hearing range, and Latias ears prick up at the sound of my voice. They just don't respond. Something tells me it's got something to do with my behaviour last night. I complete the last spiral and try giving them good news.

"Hello? I'VE GOT CUBONE". Still nothing. I must really be in trouble.

I corkscrew all the way down to Bianca's knee height and just next to her, whereupon he jumps off, shouting for Bianca. Rather irritably, the moment he's off my back, Bianca acknowledges his existence.

"Hi Cubone! Good sleep?"

He nods. "Better than Latios by the sound of it...". Cheeky so and so.

Right, affection it is. I fly up to her side at her stomach height and rub my snout against her side, just under her arm. The picture of affection. Plus my feathers are that soft, you can't help but be happy when you're touching them. Hopefully.

She sighs and puts out a tub of butter that she was arranging on the table. The moment she turns around, I know I'm getting a lecture.

But I'm surprised when instead of standing with her hands on her hips, she kneels down so her face is right infront of mine. Like, her nose millimeters from my snout, and he eyes locked right into mine. That's not how people normally tell me off.

Without warning, she grasps my head in her hands. And starts speaking very intently.

"Listen, you scared us all last night. First you go into something that looked like a fit, then you started speaking 'gobbledygook', according to Latias." - Something tells me Latias wasn't telling the whole truth about what I said to Bianca. She heard me, no doubt. - "Then... the farce with the light. I don't know why you did it and I'm not going to ask, but when you hit the floor, then, were... laid out on that table... Not moving... We were all worried. For you. That you might be hurt. And I don't want that ever happening."

There's a tear in her eye and this leads me to believe she might be upset - although with humans you never know. Some cry when they're happy.

"I'm sorry Bianca." Is the only thing I can think of saying. Of course, 'saying' isn't enough since she can't understand, but she lets go of my head. She looks like she needs a hug.

She suddenly casts her arms wide and her voice changes to be much brighter. "Come here you!", and she throws her arms around me.

Before I know it, Latias has joined in too, flying to my side and drawing her arms so she can put them on top of Bianca's and around me. Cubone ops to grab ahold of my right tail fin with one hand. Aww.

So here I am surrounded by two emotional females, and a small scavenger pokemon. Me, a legendary. I can't think but that the whole situation be horribly embarrassing if anyone were watching. But the fact is, I don't care. Yes, one of them may be a human - which certain legendaries like Groudon mutually detest - and the other may be a petty normal type, but at the end of the day, I'm not ashamed to be with them, anymore than I'd be ashamed of being with my own family. Its comforting to know that if I was in trouble or hurt, or injured , they'd be there. We're a family. It's just a family with many different species.

The hug goes stale after a bit and they all break up. Bianca shakes her head and then claps her hands. It doesn't quite get Latias' attention, so she has to do a tounge click before she can continue.

"Right then...". Bianca pauses to think.

"Me and Cubone will set out the food, because - no offense you two - but we wouldn't have any food left if I let you do it. Besides, you two can put the banner up on those two trees", she directs, pointing out that banner that we'd left outside and the two trees she wants it hanging from.

"Aww" Latias coos, hovering above the treats Bianca was setting out on the table. As I said, they're wrapped in plastic and mostly airtight, but a few of them are not fully sealed and the smell can get out, which is just taunting. Especially since it's the fish that I can smell the most. Latias is hovering over the particular package I can smell, taking deep breaths in through her snout, as close as possible, getting as much of the nice taste that she can. Bianca pulls at her wing.

"Come on, away! I don't know why you're going for it now, you can have as much as you like in a few hours" Bianca sees her fly back with a grin and rewords her last sentence.

"As much as you like AFTER we've had ours"

"Awww!"

"Go on, put that banner up. Shoo!" She waves her hand backwards and forwards in front of Latias face, and if it was anyone else I'm sure the hand would be in Latias' mouth, no longer be attached to the arm. But because it's Bianca, Latias just squints and moves backwards to avoid being hit by the flapping limb.

"Okay then..." Latias turns to me and speaks, her snout close to mine. "We might as well put up this banner then. You grab one end, I'll grab the other, and we'll tie it around a branch.".

Something tells me this task is going to be easier said than done. But I still don't think I'm in a position to argue with her.

"Sure".

We both fly to our respective corner of the banner, which hasn't moved in the two days since we made it. Lorenzo does go into the garden, but not very often into the trees, not without us. He says it makes him nervous. So the banner has remained undiscovered and unmoved. All we need to do is raise it.

I hover over the corner and fold my arms out, ready to pick up the canvas with my claws, which may tear a hole in it if I do it the wrong way. Actually, If I poke a hole in it, I won't need to tie it and all I'll need to do is slide it over a branch, through the hole. This would be easier than tying it because my claws are too small to do any complicated knots. The same goes for Latias.

"Latias, I've got a better way we can do this!" I shout her over. But because it's impossible for her to do the simple thing, she flies in a circle a few times before actually flying towards me. She stops a foot short of the edge of the banner, head three feet off the ground like me. I tell her my idea.

"So if we cut it and put a hole in the corner" - I accompany this with hand gestures - " then we can just slide a branch through the hole and let it rest on that"

Latias' face doesn't change from 'thinking'.

"I guess that could work. Lets try" And she flies back to her corner, arms folded out, ready to cut the material.

I select the 1st claw on my left arm to do this. It's the one I always use for remedial cutting. With a quick jab, the banner now has a hole in its top right corner, about 5 centimeters from the edge and 15 from the picture, not very big but it'll get bigger when I impale a branch through it.

I hear Latias shout. "Ready?"

"Ready!" I yip back, carefully grabbing a hold of the edge of the banner with my claws.

I was expecting a countdown, but Latias goes ahead and flies directly upwards. I react quickly though, and the banner doesn't tear as I race to catch up with Latias' level. With a bit of adjusting, we make the treeline with none too much effort, and the banner still in one piece.

While I almost immediately find a suitable branch and slide the ready-made hole onto it, Latias struggles. I release the end and the banner droops a bit, but if anything it makes it look even more fitting to the party vibe. Latias is still struggling with her end though, and I'm in two minds about helping her. On one hand, I don't want her to bring up last night. On the other hand, she obviously needs help.

At this rate, though, We'll be here for a few more decades before she gets her end of the banner sorted. I'll have to help.

I fly over to her, and can see the look of intense concentration on her face.

"Here, let me help you with that" I tell her as I psychic the material out of her hand and fly a tad higher than she was in search of a better branch. She follows, an inquisitive look on her face. While I'm looking for a suitable spot to hang the banner, she asks me a question.

"Latios?"

"Yes?"

"What's your favorite place? Like, if you could be anywhere now, where would it be?"

What an unprompted question... And yet, I can see why she's done it. Because the first thing that pops into my head is 'laid down, next to you', even if it is ridiculously cheesy. If she was reading my mind for the true answer, it was there for her to read though. But I don't want to say it out loud for fear of sounding too soppy (or lustral, depending on what kind of animal you think I am). But now I'm thinking.

The garden is nice, adapted for dragons and overall a good place. But it's old, I've lived here forever and it's getting stale. The mainland, now that was new, and exciting. Almost too new, so new it was frightening. And it felt like it was missing something, which I suspect was a companion to enjoy it with.

Ultimately, I want to be wherever my mate is, and never leave their side. But If I could take Latias with me, the one place I'd like to be, is space.

For starters, there's the view. The earth with all its blues and then the black of space with the horizon a shade of... well... I can only imagine. But up there... You'd see all of life and everything in it on one sphere, a marble for you to gaze at.

I mean, yeah, there's pictures on TV and stuff, but something tells me that they just aren't... real... There's so much more to it than that, I'm sure. Me and her would both love it, just us and the other, and nothing else to concern ourselves with unless we wanted it...

"Well?"

A word from her snaps me back to reality.

"Space. Up there" - I flick my head upwards so she gets the picture.

"Right..." she yips, and I can't tell if she was reading my thoughts or not. I could read her's, of course, and find out how she thinks about me, but that's not my style and besides, she's much more sensitive. She'd be able to detect me snooping around her thoughts in microseconds.

I eventually find a branch and hook the banner on, and we fly backwards (which is nit as easy as it sounds) in unison to inspect it in-situ.

I'm being honest when I say it looks fantastic. The slight droop is unintentionally artistic, the pictures on either end are fantastic and the lettering looks... Well okay it's not perfect, but what do you expect from a dumb human and a Pokemon with no opposable thumbs?

Latias almost immediately wheels round and jets to Bianca, and I follow her with my eyes, moving my head as she flies past.

She arrives next to Bianca and squeals in her ear.

"BIANCALOOKATTHIS ITS THE BANNERNISNTITAMAZING AND I THINK YOURPICTURESLOO"

Bianca puts her fingers in her ears to block the shrill noise, and shouts to be heard. "ALRIGHT JUST CALM DOWN"

Latias folds her arms so they're bent and her claws meet in front of her triangle, the apology appearance. "Sorry..."

Bianca removes her index digits from her acoustic passages and leans forward to give Latias a ruffle on the head, also scratching her ears in the process. Latias makes a quaint and satisfied coo, and Bianca smiles.

"I take it from all that cawing you've got the banner up then?"

"Uh-hu"

Bianca starts to turn around, but a buzzing noise in her pocket interrupts, and she pulls out a phone like object, holding it up to her face.

I recognize what the device is. Because the front door is so far away, we'd never hear the doorbell if it rang. So Lorenzo's got this thing which is like a doorbell which will ring in your pocket too, and it's got a phone and everything so you can talk to the person at the front door without actually going there. Bianca always picks it up before she goes into the garden.

"Who is it?"

"Is that Bianca?" a jolly voice asks back, and even though it's a bit distorted by the phone we can all tell who it is. It's Tony! With the cake!

"Oh Hi Tony! Hang on, I'll get someone to bring you through..." - She covers the phone-like-thing with one hand.

"You two, just go and pick up - NOT literally pick him up - but lead him through to here please?"

Latias enthusiastically answers for the both of us. "SURE! But first..."

She casts a sideways glance at me, and I briefly wonder what that implies... Oh wait... I know... As expected, shes bent her neck so its behind my back, and is now lightly biting my wing. "TIG!" She squeals, and barrel rolls towards the house, weaving her way through trees until she's out of sight.

"Good luck with that" is the only advice Cubone offers as I sigh and fly for after her.

* * *

This was partly inspired by the day after Dave tried to get a date with the coat rack. Except he woke up minus an ear lobe. Don't ask.

Please read and review!


	26. Chapter 26: Boop

I jet off after her. She's started this game, and I'm not going to finish until she's the one loosing. It's not difficult either, because she's slower. True, I have to weave a bit more since I'm bigger, but the trees aren't as densely populated here and there's not much to dodge around. I manage to keep her red tail feathers in sight though, which makes me think the person who made the female BRIGHT RED was actually trying to make it difficult for the significant male to keep her safe.

I mean, yeah, red is a frightning color, which is a sort of defense. But less frightning when the thing it's attached to is looking at a flower, or picking berries. It's not even remotely near the definition of camouflage, and it might as well have a giant buzzing sign attached saying "ATTACK ME!". Which is the last thing the male needs when he's trying go look after her.

I provide a good example why this is bad in how I catch up with her in seconds, not that she can tell as the whole thing is silent.

I'm aiming for the thing which will be easiest to nab, and by easier I mean closer to me and as far from her centre as possible. That'll mean I can flee faster than she can try and tig me back.

In this case, her tail fins are the best choice, and my snout is getting ever closer to them... Just a little closer and...

She slows down a fraction and her fins get well with in reach. I do a teensy bite (Bianca would call it a 'nip') on her left fin and immidiatly fly upwards, shouting to let her know she's been got as I burst out above the treeline.

"TIG!"

"Really?" She quips back. It's sarcastic, and we both know. When the other bites us, we know all about it. It's not blood-drawing or anything (I think we're some way designed to be immune to our own bites, since me and Latias used to playfight and bite each other all the time and never really get hurt). But it sure does sting. Oddly, biting does less damage to ourselves then our claws. I don't know how that works.

She flies up too, bringing in a curve so that she should run into me, or at least brush past. But I turned too quickly for her, and she flies right underneath me, a meter below. She tries again and does the same, turning back backwards, but the curve is slowing her down, and she's one and a half meters short on the next pass.

"Ha! Too slow!" I shout to her, even slowing down to taunt her.

Which I end up regretting, because Latias chooses the same moment to go in a straight line. The result is her drawing line with my wings, which she bites before peeling away from me and back down.

"Oh Yeah? TIG!"

Ultimately, I will win, because getting back to the house will require going through the archway and I'll beat her on the straight line. All the same, I'd like to be winning sooner rather then later...

I do a backwards turn and dive down after Latias. We got quite high up before she caught me, but she's not going particularly fast, so when I catch up we're just above the tree line, where Latias was hoping to dive into to make it difficult for me to spot her. But she isn't going to manage that, because I'm already almost past her.

"TIG!" I shout and do the same movement as before, biting her wing and flying away. Except this time she's ready.

She does the same curve as me, and the result is we both do two full circles in an attempt to escape/catch up with the other.

We do two loops in under half a second, but that's plenty of time to think about the next move. The issue is, either one of us could break the loop and fly straight, but then the other would have the advantage to tig back because the initial speed would be that of the turn. Very complicated, but after the second loop I come up with a plan.

I keep the turn, but rotate myself a quarter of a circle, so I'm now doing the full circular turn on a different axis to Latias.

"Ha! didn't think of that, did you?"

Then, at the point in our runs where I'm furthest away, I accelerate towards the direction I know the arch is in. After a brief amount of time to find a suitable place, I dive down into the trees. That'll make it even harder for her to find me. I'm not turning around to look where she is though. But she must be far away.

I break through the treeline and within seconds feel a bite of my wing-shoulder kind of region. "TIG!" a voice behind me shouts, and I realize what she did.

While I was in the trees, Latias carried on right above them and was able to go faster. Then when I emerged from the tree line, it must have been simple for her to just duck down and tig me. Very clever. But two can play at that game.

I halt and drop to the ground, lying on the grass with my wings down. Almost immediately, Latias flies round and faces me, hovering just a few feet above and infront of me, looking confused.

"I tug you!"

"I know..."

"So why aren't you tigging back?"

"I am."

"But your NOT! Come on Latios!"

"You wait and see"

"Really? Fine then. I'll just be leaving, after all, we're ment to be fetching Tony."

She turns around and looks a bit dejected. Then she flies for the arch, halfheartedly. Perfect.

I fly right after her, just a lot, lot faster. She's completely unprepared, and I almost don't have time to tig her. But I do, and nip her wing on the way past.

"TIG!"

"What?! You stopped playing!"

"No I didn't, I said wait and see!"

"Yes, but you'd stopped chasing!"

"WINNING!" I shout as I fly into the entrence of the archway, victorious. Haha, she fell for that one hook line and sinker. Whatever that means. Lorenzo says it whenever we fall for one of his tricks. Like sneaking medicine into our food.

"But you cheated!" I can barely hear behind me, Latias clearly not even at the archway yet whereas I am already out the other side.

Assured in my victory, I fly over to the door, which is open, since I didn't close it when me and Cubone went through. As always, just as I'm through the door, when a tug on my wings jerks me back. I sigh, fly backwards, fold them back and retry, folding them out again once I'm clear. Then it's just the doorway to the hall and I'm there, Tony's distorted image visible through the fogged up glass set at the side of the doorway. The door is locked from the outside, but on the inside all I need to do is pull the handle down.

I do so with my teeth, flying inwards at the same time. The door opens with me and I let go of the handle, allowing the door to swing inwards.

Tony is looking dead ahead and does a double take, before looking down at me. "Oh, there you are!"

Most people forget that although we can fly, we don't always fly at head height around the house. Most of the time, we're at human chest height, and so often end up starting conversations being looked down at. In this instance, I was opening the door and so was at waist height. I fly up to his level as he's already struggling with a plastic box, which by the smell of it has the cake inside.

"Come in!" I invite him, in a tone Bianca would be proud of. What else does Bianca say to guests? Oh yeah!

"Don't bother taking your shoes off, boats aren't that muddy!". It's not exactly what she says, but it's close enough.

"Oh you are kind. How are you then?"

This is one of the things I like about him. Whereas most guests don't ask us a question unless it has a yes/no response, Tony'll ask us all kinds of things. It's nice to talk to him even if you know he doesn't understand most of what your saying.

"Not bad, quite excited for this afternoon. You?"

"Good good. I'm doing well too, hired a new chef, we might start doing cooked meals now!"

Mmm... That would be nice. Omelettes and that kind of thing. I'm about to comment when Latias barrels in.

"TONY!", she coos, long and loud. I can see in her movements that she's about to go and thrust her head up to Tony for a stroke or ear scratch, so I'm relieved when she sees the box he's carrying with two hands and stops. He responds by putting an a ridiculously large grin. "Nice to meet you too, Latias. We can talk on the way... Why don't you show me to the party place?"

"Sure thing!" She turns tail - a considerable feat considering the amount of room in the almost crowded hallway - and heads out through the door into the kitchen.

"She's lively today!" Is the only comment Tony passes on the subject.

"Yeah, Bianca thinks she's going into heat" I tell him, which is true, not that that'll mean anything to him. I let him walk infront of me as we all follow Latias out of the house. Once out, she flies alongside Tony as we all walk towards and into the archway.

"So, Latias. How are you?"

"Not too bad. Wait... Hungry! Definately Hungry! But not bad at all thanks. That cake smells nice though, let me see!". She starts sniffing around the bottom of the box, while Tony is walking, nudging it with her snout. To say Tony doesn't live with us, he doesn't bat an eyelid at Latias almost tipping the box out of his hand.

"Apapapa! Nope, you'll see it in a few minutes. Where is Bianca anyway?"

"She's in the garden." Latias answers, flying away from the box and back to Tony's side, pointing to the end of the arch with one claw.

"Oh right"

Tony has been in the garden before. Him and Lorenzo like to sit on the balcony like area and drink 'gin and tonic' from time to time. But he's not familiar with it by any means, and he still does an awe filled expression every time he steps in. I can see why. Compared to the relative trauma of living in Alto Mare, the garden is isolated and as calm as it gets.

"This way!" Latias shouts, having already flown to the stairs at the side whereas I've been keeping pace with Tony.

We make our way down the steps and down the path between the two ponds. Or lakes. Tony doesn't say anything for the time being, just enjoying the tranquility of the garden. That is, until Latias starts squealing.

"TONY! TONY LOOK! SWING!"

Tony and I both look to see Latias on the swing attached to a branch of a tree next to the water's edge. 'On' is a bit of a misdemeanor, as I doubt she's actually putting that much weight on her rear. But she is swinging backwards and forwards, the crook of her arms on the rope. I have a tire swing on the tree next to it, and I'm tempted to join her, but I want to appear slightly more mature in front of Tony. Besides, someone's got to take him to Bianca.

"Very Nice Latias" He shouts over to her, which prompts a "thank you!" from her direction, quiter as she gets further away. Tony lowers his voice and continues talking to me.

"How's that Cubone doing that you picked up?" Tony asks me, and I do an ashamed face. I hope he didn't get into trouble for us taking him.

"Oh, there's no need for that face. The lady called and asked where he was. I told her that I'd dropped him at the centre and she said that if I wanted to I could keep him. She even had the cheek to call me lonely and 'in need of a companion'!"

I breathe a sigh of relif. The woman didn't want Cubone back, and Tony didn't get in trouble. "He's doing good. Cheerful once you get past that mask, really."

"So you didn't have him for lunch?" He teases. I act horrified, but he knows I'd never abuse his trust like that. He knows we're carnivores and hunt, but I don't think he'd live it down if we'd eaten a pokemon lured into his shop. But he makes a valid point.

"No, I'd never do that! Besides, Cubone wouldn't taste good. Too bony" Haha, if only he understood. Which he doesn't, so he just carries on.

"Ahh good. I guessed you and him would be good friends..." He lapses into a silence and I consider this unassuming ice cream man.

He doesn't have any pokemon of his own, because he's said to Lorenzo in one of their chats that he thinks keeping them in a ball is inhumane. From what I've gathered from captured pokemon, it's a half truth. Some of them like it, some don't mind and some adamantly refuse, which is apparently an option.

His wife died many a year ago. He lives in the apartment above the shop on his own. He's got a daughter and two grandsons, but they moved to the mainland. The son in law is a 'good lad', apparently, but other then that Tony doesn't mention his family much around me and Latias. Lorenzo probably knows more.

In due time, we reach the clearing. Bianca is sat on the table, swinging her legs, clearly at a loose end, having finished with the table. Cubone is also sat in the same way, just with his stubby feet extending barely beyond the edge of the table. He's talking to Bianca, who is giggling at him, mainly I think for the fact that she can't understand a single thing he's sayinf but for the fact his growl-like speach sounds unimaginably cute . Tony smiles as be sees this, and I can hear him chuckle.

"Hey! Bianca! and the Little Guy!". By that of course he means Cubone. As a response, Bianca waves and jumps off the table and Cubone waves his bone in immitation, Although opting to stay on the table.

Tony walks briskly over with the cake, but I stay where I am because I feel a presence approaching. Specifically, a big, red presence with a very happy aura. It closes in until it's right next to my ear, but anyone else wouldn't notice unless they could feel aura. But I do. And I know what she's going to do next.

Before she can, I turn my head and nip her right on the snout. I make a "BOOP!" noise as I do so, which throws her in to complete confusion, before turning back to Bianca, Cubone and Tony.

What she was going to do was get really close without me noticing and then squeal in my ear, making me jump. Except she failed at the 'not noticing her' part, so from her point of view she's just suddenly been bitten on the snout for no reason. I give it a few seconds before she works out what she's going to do.

"What... the?... Wait... What?!"

I wait a few seconds and then "BOOP!". I do the same thing again, and turn back to watching Bianca.

"Oh. So you're going to play THAT game" she says, like 'THAT' is a game we've played before. In actual fact, that's the first time I've done that, so if she's turning it into a game it will be a game neither of us know the rules to.

A few seconds pass, then Latias flies forwards and bites my snout, her head sideways so I can just about see the mischevious look in her eye. "Boop!". She returns to the position she was in like nothing ever happened, just like I did.

A few seconds pass.

She's just abut to do it again, but this time I duck down and she snaps at thin air. "Oooooh!".

I fly all the way down to the ground, lying down facing Latias, who is still at chest height. Now if she wants to "boop", I can just move my head out of the way, then go on the offensive myself.

Sure enough, she thinks that because she's now higher up, she'll have the advantage, which would be true if not for the fact that this 'game' appears to be limited in the area you're targeting I. E: You can only bite the other's snout. She lowers herself so my snout is in reach if she streaches her neck, but stays off the ground. She extends her neck forwards to try and make a grab, but I just move sideways and dodge, before moving back to where Latias' snout still is, and "BOOP!". Another point to me.

I think Bianca notices, because she starts to shout to discipline me.

"LATIOS! DON'T BITE LATIAS'... Oh right it's a game." She trails off her sentence as Latias tries to make another series of jabs at me, each of which fail.

"STAY STILL!" She squeals after that series of jabs didn't work.

After another failed attempt, she gives up and flies to Bianca and Tony, not necessarily for any affection but more to see the cake which Tony has just set down on the table in its box.

I'm interested in the cake too and fly over on the opposite side of the people to where Latias is. We're now all in a line, centred on the cake, me on the left, then Bianca, then Tony and finally Latias. Cubone is stood on the table, looking at the tub.

"Do you want to take the lid off?" Tony asks Cubone, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return.

"Okay then little guy... Let me help you". Tony grabs hold of the bottom of the box, which is actually the box's intended lid but as its been turned upside down (presumably so the cake will be ready and easier to eat off the lid). "Go for it!".

Cubone grabs the sides of box and starts lifting, his little arms starting to show strain as he tries to get the right angle on it. His palms are flat against it, the ever-present bone between his left palm and the box, until the top of the box pops off, the base held down by Tony.

Cubone raises it further until we see the cake.

It's a magnificent creation in every aspect. Smells wonderful, looks wonderful and I bet it tastes even better. The whole cake is iced white, for starters. Around the edge is more icing that's red and blue, and in a star tube pattern. The image in the middle is almost in the same style of the banner, and if you'd seen the two you'd say the cake was done to match the banner, even though that isn't possible since Tony hasn't even seen the banner until now.

The design iced on the top is muted so as not to clash with the text layered above it. It's almost like he's drawn it with a pencil, which is impossible because it's icing, and it looks like a colored pencil rendering of Lorenzo when he was commentating on the race. Except in the open window, in the distance in the sky, is me and Latias chasing each other's tail fins. Awww...

Everyone except Tony lets out an amazed gasp.

"That ... Is... Amazing" Bianca looks in awe, the cake easily besting her artistic talent. Yeah, the picture is about as good as one she could draw. But it's done in ICING! I don't know if you've ever tried spelling your name with icing, but by the looks of it it's almost impossible even if you have opposable thumbs.

Bianca pulls her phone out and starts taking pictures of the cake from different angles and with the flash on and off.

While that's happening, Latias is adoring Tony's skills and rubbing her head against his shoulder. "That's amazing! That drawing... And it only took a day, how on earth did you do it, I mean it takes me two hours to draw a stick man..."

Tony is smiling even more, not smug or anything, just really happy we like his work. "Glad you all like it!". We do.

Bianca stops taking pictures of the cake and turns to Tony. "Thanks, that cake is AMAZING... You should really set up a stall or something at the market place"

It's a good idea. He'd make a lot more money, because more tourists go through the market then the ally his shop is in. Plus with cakes like that you could charge as much as you like and you'd still get people buying them, they're that good.

"Hey, with Lorenzo as a TV presenter, you could get him to mention your shop on TV. You'd get lots more people!" Bianca points out.

"Naah" - Tony dismisses the idea with a wave of his hand - "I'm sure there's rules against that. Anyway, I'm happy with the work I've got now."

Bianca gazes at the cake for a few more seconds before speaking again.

"I think it's time for lunch..."

Brilliant, I'm starving. What's on the menu?

Latias starts to fly over the delectables on the table but is stopped by Bianca grabbing her wing with one hand. "Oh no, we are NOT opening any of that stuff until the party. Me and Tony are going to have something from the house. You lot can find your own."

Tony laughs at Latias disappointed coo.

"I thourght you liked getting your own food?"

"Yeah. But not one someone else is telling me to!"

I don't mind really, it's just a shame that we can't have the fish which is already out on the table. Then again, she's essentially said 'have anything you want except the stuff on the table'. Which isn't too bad, I guess, considering we have the whole of Alto Mare to select our food from.

"Who's the little fella going to eat with?" Tony asks as he does a mini handshake with Cubone, who has to wrap his entire hand around Lorenzo thumb.

"Whoever he wants..." Bianca looks at him, opening the floor for him to select who he wants to have a meal with. On one hand, what me and Latias will be having will probably taste better to him. On the other, if he went with Bianca, it won't be wriggling, which obviously distressess him.

He points the hand with the bone to me and Latias.

"Okay, them it is. See you guys later!" and she becons Tony to follow her towards the archway. Something tells me she's got a plan or something like that, and wants me and Latias to stay out of. But then again, perhaps she just didn't want to make food for 2 more mouths. Or the extra washing up afterwards.

Latias flies over to Cubone and puts her snout right up to his skull. "We get to feed you!" she says, an obvious statement. "So, what do you want?"

I'm glad he's been given a choice, because I'd always go for 'whatever's easier' option. But letting Cubone decide is a challenge.

"Er... Erm... Oh... Er..." he stutters, really unsure about what to have. It's probably been ages since he's had any kind of choice, let alone an almost unlimited choice. Latias butts in to help.

"If you can't decide we can just get whatever and suprise you?" She suggests.

"Aren't we having party food later?"

"Aren't you hungry now?"

"Yes?"

"Well let's eat what we want now and worry about what we'll eat later, later". It's a good policy and hasn't failed either of us yet.

"Well... Okay... But I don't know what's available. You two just suprise me.". Oh we can do suprising, believe me.

"Well okay then" - Latias takes the lead in food planning, she normally eats the most anyway - "Who do you want to help? Me?"

"What do you do?"

"Find berries, leaves, fruit. That kind of thing."

"And what does Latios do?" He asks Latias instead of me directly.

"Whatever he wants. Probably hunting knowing him." - her snout suddenly snaps towards me - "Wait, don't you have that fish on the pa-"

"THAT'S FOR LATER!" I shout over the top of her. She is not having that gift until everyone is here. Which is awkward behaviour in her eyes, since I rarely keep food. Naturally, she's intreuged: If she could open one eye more than the other to make an intreugied face right now, she would.

"Hmmmm... Okay then... So. If me and Cubone get some planty stuff" - that's what she calls the stuff she finds - " You can get what you think's best"

That's fine by me, so I give her a nod of the head before levitating up and away, thinking about what food to get.

The problem as I see it is that Alto Mare is very restricted by way of places to get food. Since ground space is limited, there are almost no green areas where wild pokemon will be, and those that there are often have people in, so you can't go and just attack things even if you are invsible, because odds are someone will see that zigzagoon suddenly die and then fly off into the air, apparently all of its own accord.

I could go and steal something from a market stall or from the stand outside a shop, I guess. Those places are so cheotic almost no-one notices. But I don't think there will be anything large enough to feed me and Latias and Cubone. What does he like anyway? Probably land animals or something, since scavengers won't come across fish often, if not ever. Something nice and meaty.

I take a quick look at the parks first, because it's a Monday and there will be less people around them. After turning invisible, I check out the first, largest park. It looks like a no-go, because there's a couple and child there and while they may not see, they might hear and run to try and see.

The next park has too many people in, full stop. It looks like a school trip or something.

I strike gold on the third park though. Completely empty, perfect. Now all I need is something to actually take back. Which is yet another issue.

It's an issue because, being an island, wild non-water Pokemon in Alto Mare are actually quite rare, as there isn't many places trainers haven't been. And I don't like praying on caught pokemon, because more often than not that makes the trainers (many of whom are new or young) upset to the point of crying, which then makes me feel bad even though I'm only doing the natural thing.

The only wild pokemon that aren't rare are the ones that are undesirable to the trainers, such as oddish or zigzagoon. I don't generally catch the undesirable ones either, as there isn't normally much meat or anything useful on them. But sometimes the population gets a bit out of control I have to for fear of them taking over. Even if I don't like the taste that much.

Plus Latias always has a go at me if I bring oddish back. 'Latios, I'M meant to get the plants, YOU'RE meant to get the meat!'. She says it in a kidding tone and we do eat it in the end, but all the same. It smacks a bit of too little effort, which isn't what you want when your trying to convince her to be your mate.

* * *

Today I spilt hydraulic fluid all over an electrical connection and set my work on fire. On two separate occasions. I need cheering up. Reviews please?


	27. Chapter 27: Meat

INTERESTING LATI FACT:  
The 'lati' prefix is most likely from the Latin word 'lateo', which means 'to be significant, but hidden'. The suffix 'as' or 'os' was then most likely appended to reflect the gender in the same way as Le or el depicts gender in Spanish... This also matches the implications of the film of which Latios sacrifices himself for the town (which is very significant) even though he himself was hidden from the residents. Once more, it's one of the few pokemon names that is pronounced the same in English as it is in Japanese. So there's that...

Heads up - This chapter contains descriptions that the weak hearted (Or extreme Scyther fans/young audiences) may find disturbing, in a gross nature. Although if you've read this far and not commented on my grammar, you've got a heart strong enough to LAUGH at "Marly and me" , so you should be fine.

* * *

With that in mind, I fly down into the small park to look for something more than an oddish. Which may be challenging. And this time, there's no 'lying down and waiting' like with the Relincanth. Normal and Grass types tend to stay still or at least roam in groups. Some pokemon can immitate the calls of others and use that to lure them into a trap, but I'm not one of them, so I settle with slowly flying through the park and scanning around to see what there is at the same time. This is probably what Bianca feels like in the pokemart when she's walking down the isles and looking what she wants amid rows of things she doesn't. Except if this was a supermarket, all it has is courgette and broccoli. I hate those...

Supermarket comparisons aside, I'm still not seeing anything other then oddish, rattata and electricke, all of which we're not particularly fond of. Mainly because they're too small to count as a main meal on their own. So I'd have to get three each (perhaps just one for Cubone) for it to count as a meal. That's 7 electike that I'd have to fit in my mouth and yeah... Not a practical catch.

I'm about to give up and either steal some meat from a stall or find another park, when a glint of sunlight reflecting off a white surface catches my eye behind a tree, just to my left. The surface was moving, so it's either mechanical or an animal. And since I can't hear anything mechanical, it must be a pokemon of some sort. I rotate my ears towards it to get a better sound. It's walking, I can hear its footfalls, and it's taking medium length breaths. Not on edge or alert. It hasn't smelt me yet. Most don't until it's too late.

I instinctively sink down into the grass, keeping low and out of sight, even though I'm invisible, all the time keeping my eye on this light colored patch... Is it going to cross my path or...?

The white patch rotates and when I look directly at what it was attached to I can see what it is. That green reptilian head, sharp bladed arms and wings folded behind its back. Its a scyther, walking through the trees looking for I don't know what. Not urgent enough for food, not showing off enough for a mate, assuming it's male. The sunlight must have been reflecting off the blades on its arms, but with that now rotated out of my way, I can see that it's heading across my path, somewhat towards me.

We've had a scyther before. They actually taste quite nice when you get past the skin, and the well developed back muscles which drive the wings are plenty nutritious. And they are roughly the height of Tony, so plenty of meat too. Catching them is more difficult than normal though, because they're faster than your average bug type and you have to avoid the sharp blades on its arms. But it's still not particularly difficult. They can't fly at least, despite the wings. The most they can do is hover.

I stay low to wait and see how close it gets. The closer it is before it turns away, the better my odds will be. I decide on a classic biting method to catch this one. Yeah, I could attack it with psychic or dragon breath or another attack, but something always tells me that isn't the way hunting is done. It should just be raw animal power. Plus the attacks make noise or take time, making them impractical for urgent or suprise attacks.

It gets closer, closer, before it starts turning away. Its not detected me, just changed course. But now it's facing away and the closest it's going to get, the perfect opportunity. I take a brief millisecond to select the area I'm going to attack before bursting up and flying right towards it.

I'm aiming for its neck. Specifically, the back of its neck. That way I should kill it pretty quickly and if not, be out of reach of the two blades that are attached between its body and claws.

As luck would have it, my wing brushes a leaf or a branch and made a noise, because in the half second between my taking off and reaching scyther, it turns its head a quarter turn and speaks, the voice identifying it as a male.

"Who's tha-"

I'm already on him though, and a centimeter short of reaching him I open my mouth, before travelling that extra distance and then biting around his windpipe, my snout extending just beneath his jaw. He stops his sentence and gives out a yelp of pain.

In a battle, against a trainer's pokemon, I'd never bite this hard. In a battle it's more of a play bite than a full on chomp, which is what I'm doing now. It's not an exact figure, But I recon the bite I'm doing now is about 5 times stronger than the one I do in battles. After a second or so he starts talking again like I've not just nearly ripped a hole in his vital windpipe. As it is his neck is bleeding profusely, I just need to bite that little bit deeper to get to his windpipe or spine.

"Oh you have had it now, What ever you are..." He threatens as he tries to reach his rasor sharp scythes round behind himself to try and lay a cut on my wings or body. He can't see me though and his arms won't bend back enough, so I remain untouched.

I growl, rapidly shake my head as much as possible, and apply a bit more pressure to the bite. The arrogant scyther stops talking. Honestly, he's wandering around, not even in a pack, not being careful or anything, and then he's suprised when he gets selected for lunch. Its his own fault really... I think Lorenzo would call it 'Natural Selection'.

My shacking has made his head start to wobble, and he's just making low growling noises now. He's trying to intimidate me, but it isn't working. I'm the one with my teeth around his neck, after all.

After a bit more bite force I can feel something in the neck give way. A few seconds after that, the noise stops and the scyther goes all limp, it's legs no longer supporting it and instead being held up via my mouth.

It wasn't as clean or quick as I wanted it, but the job's done, with no injury to myself. Come to think of it, it's a bit unfair. Most pokemon go out hunting with the risk that they themselves may end up being hunted. But with so much in my favor: being able to turn invisible, travel fast, really sharp teeth, that kind of thing, I've never once badly hurt myself.

Either way, I've got lunch now, and my mouth is full, so I can't get anything else. I might as well fly this back to Latias and Cubone, they will be pleased. I'm sure Latias will have found even a few herby things that we can have with this at the same time to make it a real treat.

When I was younger and Latias had just started letting me go on my own (Well, stopped following me on every hunt), I'd take small bites out of the catch on the way back. But she grew wise really quickly and started having a go at me if I ever did. So I resist the urge to chew on the bug-type's tender flesh as I fly back home.

An added bonus of it being a scyther is that I don't have to fly too high as people will just assume it's a normal flying scyther so long as they don't see too close up. Even if it is flying too high.

It's not slowing down my flight too much, and I arrive at the clearing in the garden in no longer time than it would have normally taken. I ruffle my feathers back to normal so I'm visible, but Latias and Cubone are not anywhere to be seen. So they've probably gone deeper into the garden to look for berries or something. The scyther is getting in the way a bit now that I'm below tree level as its lifeless limbs are getting caught on branches or other things, and if I want to find Latias and Cubone any time soon it'd be best if I just dropped it behind a tree and search for them without the animal in my mouth.

I fly behind one of the trees that the banner is attached to and dump the scyther, relieved about the burden I no longer have to carry. I sink back down to a lower flight level and start looking for Latias. I take a rough guess that she'll be at the back of the garden where all the best berry bushes are, or at least, where she thinks they are.

I fly around the garden for a while before catching her scent, and fly towards that, noticing the indistinguishable red feathers when I get off closer. Turning my ears in her direction, I can hear her talking to someone. Cubone, probably. Awww...

I fly around a tree to see what's happening. She's teaching the little guy how to collect berries. I don't want to intrude for now, just watch and see how he's doing. I fly a little more closer so I can get a good view, and then lower myself down into the grass so I'm less visible.

Cubone is stood in front of a berry bush, I can't identify what type from here. Latias is floating horizontally just above him, both arms out and gesturing different things. Right now, she's pointing out the aspects of a certain berry, the berry in question being delicately held by her right claw in front of cubone's face.

"-one tastes a lot better if it's this kind of shade. Generally, and the brighter the color, the better it will taste." Latias instructs, thinking for a second before adding another note in there.

"Except if it's yellow. Don't have yellow berries unless I've checked them, because a few of them are poisons"

Cubone nods uncertainty and picks up the berry from Latias' claw, before dropping it down on a pile that I'd overlooked. Latias does a little cheering noise and then speaks again.

"I'm going to get some more fruit. You collect some more from this bush and I'll be right back!".

Cubone gives a nod and Latias takes off directly upwards, the leaves on the trees shrouding her from view when she rises.

I watch Cubone as he leans his entire body in to the bush, emerging a few seconds later with a single berry. He inspects it, closing one eye and bringing the berry really close. He rotates it around in his chubby little hand before deciding it's satisfactory, putting it on the pile of berries Latias had collected.

He reaches in to the berry bush again, skull almost engulfed by the plant.

He manages to collect about 6 more berries using this method before Latias returns, arriving from above in a spiral. In her mouth is an apple, her jaw clamped firmly around the fruit. I know we had apple trees in here, but I can't tell which ones are them until they actually have the fruit visible. Which it often doesn't, because me and Latias eat them the moment they become ripe enough.

Neither of them have noticed me yet, but now's a good a time as any to let them know I've got the meat.

I fly up from the undergrowth and call to them. "Latias! I'm back! And I've got a good catch!"

Latias and Cubone both turn around, Latias dropping the apple that was in her mouth onto the ground. In the long run that would bruise it, apparently.

"Cool. But... Where is it?"

"I left it at the clearing. Wait, stay here, I'll get it!"

I turn around and dart back to the tree where I hid the scyther. It's still there, still fresh, but it's no longer bleeding. There's a small red patch on the grass where it's neck was resting though. I hope it hasn't bled completely dry...

I pick it up via its neck in the same way as before, this time just lower down so as not to already agitate the open wound and risk the head falling off. It's always embarrassing when you have to bring a kill in in two pieces. Especially one this big. It's big enough that I'm flying at chest height and it's feet aren't clearing the ground, so it's legs are being dragged along underneath me.

I get back to where Latias and Cubone were and they hear me arriving. I call to them anyway as I drag the meal to them

"I got it! It's a scyther!". I'm facing towards them, so I can see their responses.

Latias looks pleased, probably because it's a large kill and she's going to take the majority herself. Cubone looks slightly suprised. He's probably just not had that much to eat before.

Latias flies up and starts sniffing around the scyther, preemptively deciding which part she's going to have, even though I'm still flying it towards the pile of berries. The result is I'm slowed down and Latias is flying backwards, neither is which is something I like to do.

I eventually make it next to the pile of berries and I drop the scyther down, it landing not one foot from where Cubone was stood. He glares at it for a few seconds as Latias sniffs over it, cooing to herself.

"Are you sure it's dead?" He asks.

I look him in the eyes. "Well if it's alive, he's let me fly him across the town and he's able to survive with his neck broken"

Cubone waddles up to the scyther neck and checks out the wound I've inflicted.

"You do this?" He asks.

I fly down so I'm talking across the body. My stomach is just touching the grass, but my head is at the same height as Cubone's.

"Yeah, it's MY kill"

Cubone gives a kind of awed look. Not fully. But still pretty amazed.

"Enough talking, let's eat!" Latias says, her snout buried underneath the scyther as she tries to get to it's back where the best meat is. Typical.

With a thud, the body rolls over and - after grabbing the four folded back wings and snapping them off - Latias immediately starts chewing on the skin of its back, puncturing it with non too much effort and tearing it with even less, exposing the muscle below.

I fly opposite and lower my head next to her so our ears are almost touching, thinking I could get some of the wing muscles meat, but her cooing changes to a growling noise. She clearly doesn't want me eating near her. Obviously I've got to eat a different part.

I'm about to start further down at the scyther's abdomen thing when I notice Cubone, who's waddled past Latias' wing, over to the edge of the body next to her. He's gazing longingly at the food but not actually eating or anything.

"What's up? You not hungry?" I ask him. The poor guy needs to eat.

"I don't have claws..." is his pitiful response. And with right: without claws he can't get through the skin and can't get at any of the goodness underneath.

"Teeth?" I ask. Surely he must have some way to get at it. I can help him if needs be, but he should really learn how to do this himself.

He just sighs. "Too blunt". I tilt my head and glance quizzically.

Cubone decides a demonstration is in order, and he leans over and picks up the scyther's limp arm, making Latias (who's neck was in the way further up the arm) raise her body. She keeps her head in the same place though, chewing away, cooing as she does, as always.

Cubone puts the arm up to his mouth - though the skull makes it impossible to see - with the blade thing pointing away, and starts knawing on it. After about ten seconds, he lowers the arm and I see his problem.

Aside from tiny surface punctures, theres barely a scratch on it. This makes sense. If he's a scavenger, he's going to require more chewing than biting since what food he eats will already be exposed with no skin. So he won't have as sharper teeth as normal.

"Oh... " - Poor guy. Even his eating is defined by other pokemon actions. - "Do you want that arm?"

"If it's not too much trouble". He says it solemnly, not irritably. I can't not help now, unlike Latias who has since nibbled her way right across the shoulders. At the rate she's going I won't get anything.

I grab the arm with my teeth - taking care not to cut myself on the blade thing - and bite down hard, trying to recreate the circumstances by which Cubone would find his food. The scyther bones are much like any bird or flying type, and are more spongy than your non-winged pokemon. In other words, they snap with very little effort.

With a crunch, the arm breaks in half and after a bit of yanking by my jaw, it comes loose from the body, the skin tearing with a cross between a ripping and a squelching noise. A bit of blood drips off. Well, okay, a lot, but Cubone doesn't have to drink it if he doesn't want to. All the stuff he normally had was probably dried out by the time he'd found it.

I place the arm back in his outstretched hands and he inspects it. It's now got some ragged tears in the skin and the muscle looks all ready to be chewed off the bone. Perfect for him.

"Great! Thanks". Without another pause, he sets about ripping bits of meat of the bone and chewing them down.

I finally can have my food now. Latias has almost completely torn open the upper back now and is happily eating the stickier bits of meat off the bones. The lower back (which she's ignored for now) also has muscle in it, though, so I set about ripping that open, opening my mouth as wide as possible before placing it around the centre of the lower back and closing it, ripping open the skin in the process. Below that I can already feel the muscle around the spine with my tounge, and I start chewing on that. It's nice and raw, the blood still in it at some parts, and while it's not as good as what I'd imagine the wing muscles are like, it's still pretty good. It's thin though, so I have to tear open the hole wider and wider as the muscles wears down to bone quicker than if it was thicker, like the wing muscles will be. There are gaps in between the bone that have more meat behind them, but I'll snap those off after I've had this.

Out of nowhere, Latias suddenly makes a screeching noise and we all jump back instinctively.

"Ahh!" she says in a high pitched voice as she throws her entire body back. I'm briefly seriously concerned for her health, until she cries out what the problem is. I stop thinking that something has attacked her and needs dispensing with, and start thinking exactly how stupid she is.

"Ahh! I bit my tounge!". I roll my eyes. Latias has been eating for the best part of 90 years and still manages to fail at it from time to time. But this also means another thing...

Now she's flown backwards, the back and shoulders of the food is now available. Before she can react, I dart in and start chewing on all the stringy muscle she's missed.

She suddenly forgets the pain of biting her tounge and starts yelling at me. "Hey! I was there! Back!" She tries nudging my snout away with her own, but I stay put. I can hear Cubone start chuckling at the situation.

Latias growls at me, and it sounds quite angry. Well it's her own problem. Like Bianca says, 'Move your feet, loose your seat'. Although we don't even have legs. Or somewhere to sit for that matter. "I said move". She growls even lower. Tough. I'm staying, because the meat here is SO much better, even if there's not much left. It's a lot tougher and developed, the hardest working muscle as it needs to move quick to make the wings go fast enough to be effective.

In response to me taking her spot, Latias bites my ear, which I'd left up so I could hear her and Cubone. It hurts, but I keep my ground and lower my ears, so she can't get at them.

After a few seconds of what I can detect in her aura as severe annoyance, she gives up pestering me and starts eating as close to where I am as possible. She's still opposite me though, so it ends up with us being ear to ear, scraping the best meat off the bone. She's still making those cooing noises when she eats, though, and I don't know why. Might as well ask her, really.

"Latias?"

"Yup?"

"Why do you make noises when you eat?"

"You complaining?". I'm not, but according to Bianca and Lorenzo, it's rude to talk (or coo) with your mouth full. Considering I'm doing that very thing now, Bianca would be appalled. Actually, she probably would find the fact that my snout is buried in a corpse more offensive...

"No, just wondering."

"Oh I don't know. I just do. Like you always bang your wings on the back door".

I stop the conversation there. No need to bring up all the embarrassing things that happen to me.

I reconcentrate on the food. There's almost no meat left on the bone, so I crack open a few the fragile ribs with my teeth, bending them backwards so I can get at the stuff underneath. There's an assortment of bodily organs, none of which I can name reliably, but I can certainly say which is tastyist. I don't know Scyther enough to tell them just by location, but I can still smell through my mouth which bits are which. I crack open a few more ribs before I find what I'm looking for, the second tastyist bit after the wing muscles in my opinion.

Eventually, Latias realizes all the meat from the bit she's eating is definitely gone, so she cracks open the other bones and starts munching on the deeper organs, still making those cooing noises. They loose their cuteness when her snout is buried up to the white pentagon pattern in my kill.

I've mosy eaten what I think is reasonable to have (Cubone has had just an arm, and I've had, like, half of its insides) when I realize the berries are still there. And the apple. I stop eating the meat and look up.

Cubone is wiggling the scyther's leg, probably trying to find some way to open it without disturbing me.

"Do you want that leg?" I ask. It's only polite. I mean, if it was just a random wild Cubone that started to touch my kill while we were eating, I'd probably hyper beam it. But Cubone's a friend, so I ask so he knows I'm happy to help.

"If you don't mind?"

My response is to fly down to the leg and bite it, before tugging a few times. The leg joint is stronger though, and it takes a stronger bite to crunch the bone before it will come off. When it does, various entrails spill out, as well as the skin ripping, which is a crucial thing for Cubone, I've decided. Once there's a tear, he can just widen that with his hands.

Job done, I fly over to the pile of fruit and berries, looking at them briefly. Latias detects that is speaks.

"That apple's yours!"

Latias loves apples, so it's nice that she's letting me have the only one she's collected for today. Although she always gives something special in return for good meat. Perhaps it's like her version of letting me know she's interested in me as a mate? Gifts? I've heard of that before from other pokemon, but this isn't exactly a normal circumstance. She's got no one to compete with.

"Thanks!". I thank her with the one coo, which makes her make a small giggling noise as she starts eating again. Like when Bianca is talking to Jay. I put it down to her heat and concentrate on eating.

I look at the apple before I eat it, having a sniff too just to get the most out of it. Apples are always interesting. The colors and that kind of thing, mixing on the surface like some kind of natural oil painting. On it is also four sets of punctures and a few indentations, where Latias had grabbed it with her teeth to take it off the tree. I try and pick it up by the same indentations, before flying back over to the other two. I might as well eat it with them.

I rest it on the grass just next to the scyther and take a bite, the fruity juices splashing into my mouth accompanied by a crunching noise. It tastes really sugary, and very sweet. Overall, a very nice taste. Easily as good as the meat, even though they are two completely different tastes.

After that bite I feel the need to tell Latias how greatfull I am. After all, these are not exactly the most common thing ever, and it tastes great.

"Mmm... This is a tastey apple. Thanks again Latias!" I make sure to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

The first part of the reply is muffled as Latias has her head buried I what I'm guessing is the scyther's lungs. "No problem. This isn't a bad catch yourself!"

I resume eating the apple, but I'm glad Latias likes that kill. If she likes this one and it was difficult, she'll love the fish later on...

In another 5 bites, the apple is gone, stem and all. Bianca normally leaves the core and that bit when she has an apple that she buys from a market stall. And when I say leaves, I mean, throws it onto the furthest corner of the room for me and Latias to fight over.

The scyther is now mostly gone, the skin almost totally stripped and the only bits still identifiable as body parts being one of the legs, one of the arms and the head. But I notice that there's still some good looking stuff in the torso, near where Latias is eating. I tuck in there too, nibling away at any remains there are to have. Latias had broken and nudged the spine and remaining ribs away while I was enjoying the apple, so I don't need to eat around that any more.

I'm almost done when I hear Bianca shout from just in the trees, who must have spotted Latias' red feathers before the dead scyther.

"There you guys are! I've been looking fo-OH MY ARCEUS!". The sentence changes when she sees what we're eating. This is why we always eat at the edge of the garden, because it's out of the way and so we're less likely to be in the way of Bianca, who doesn't like seeing us eat other pokemon (It's also because it's near a wall so it's one less side that we need to defend it from, not that anything tries stealing our food anyway). Well, sometimes she's okay. But judging by the way she's screaming, now is not one of those times.

The severed scyther head probably does look a tad traumatic from her point of view, but surely not THAT much...

* * *

Someone carved the name "Lorenzo" into my welding work. If it was one of you guys, ^fantastic^, you've got your mention here. Now I want you to buff it out by next Wednesday. If it wasn't any of you, we've got a very weird set of coincidences here.

I got a PM asking me how I can write out all the gory bits of killing and eating stuff and I might as well share the answer with you guys. You might find it interesting:

1) I have shot, gutted, and cooked a squirrel. With a bow and arrows. Descriptions like this don't freak me. It could get a lot worse if you want... Let me know if it needs more or less gore either way, this story is for you guys.  
2) Imagining it's someone you hate. In this instance, it's a girl from a school I used to go to. You have no idea how mentally relieving it is to mentally snap the necks of people you hate. Try it.

Possibly psychotic traits aside, I guess what guys? YESTERDAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY! Yep, it's been a whole extra year since my escape from the womb! Hows about a few celebratory reviews? Not reviews from celebrities, but just some reviews in celebration. Come on, mash those keyboards! WHOOT! PARTY AT MY PLACE!


	28. Chapter 28: Girls

Interesting meowth fact:  
In Japanese, meowth is called nyanth. Anyone make the connection? No? Nyancat? Well, the Japanese think that the sound a cat makes is 'nyan', whereas in English, it is 'meow'. So the translators for the English version just replaced the culture specific sounds, and left 'th' On the end. The result was 'nyan'th becoming 'meow'th.

* * *

To make matters worse, Jay bursts up from behind her, clearly having been running to see what made Bianca shout. If I was Bianca's prospective mate, I wouldn't have left her side in the first place. He reaches for her and immidiatly pulls her into a hug, her burying her face in his coat.

"Oh Banksy, you okay?"

Banksy? Seriously? It's actually like he's having a competition with himself to see how bad a nickname he can find for Bianca. At any rate, she's overreacting a tad. I mean, yes, the scyther has been ripped in two, and yes it's vaguely humanoid, but she's seen us make bigger messes of eating. I think...

Jay looks up and at us, the does a double take on the dead scyther.

"Is that, Oh man, I mean, like, Woah, is that? It is!"

Yes, nonce, it's your father, he finally came back after seeing your ugly face. Oh wait, he's on about the scyther.

He let's go of Bianca and takes a step forward, towards my kill, which is a bad thing to do for 2 reasons. Latias and me being those respective reasons.

Latias lowers her head back over the meat, protecting her section but keeping her eyes on Jay and her teeth barred, and starts growling. A tad unnecessary, given he's unlikely to start trying to steal her food.

What I'm worried about is my kill. I worked hard on that, and knowing Jay he's the kind of person who'd set it on fire if it made him look more dominant. Which it wouldn't, because I'd rip off his head and use it as a beach ball if he did. So I let him know that.

"Back off, Jay. It's mine."

Of course, I forgot that Jay lacks even a basic sense of self preservation, and he takes another step towards our food which is also another step towards Latias, who still has her teeth barred and looks set to pounce on Jay if his shoe so much as brushes the scyther's legs. Cubone is watching and chewing on the leg like the situation is a film and the leg is his popcorn.

"Cool it guys" - Jay holds up his hands, like that's going to stop either of us if he gets any closer - "What was this anyway? A scyther? Nasty looking blade thingies, must have been difficult to catch. Who did this then?"

Admittedly he says that with some sense of commendment, like he's pleased that I managed to take it down. But he's still getting closer to my kill and thats got to stop.

"ITS MY KILL, SO YOU CAN BACK OFF!" I shout so loud it echos, and Jay stops in his tracks. I growl a bit too and he backs away, towards Bianca, who provides a commentary for the inexperienced Jay, having recovered from her drama fit.

"If it's something that big, it's one of Latios' kills. Latias could do that too, but she collects those berries there " - she points out the pile of berries - "instead. But don't get too close if they're eating their own catch, they are VERY territorial" Bianca says a lot more calmly. She sounds like a pokemon watching program.

Jay has backed off enough that he's next to Bianca, and he asks her about the earlier over reactive hysteria. I keep watch on him though as Latias has gone back to eating. I don't trust him out of my eyesight.

"Oh that, yeah. When I first saw it I thourght it was a human". Bianca says, giggling at her own stupidity. Jay goes pale.

"They do that?"

"No. But, well, there's a first time for everything."

Indeed there is, and I for one hope Jay volunteers. Which judging by his next action, he wants to, as he leads Bianca around Latias and towards the scyther's decapitated head, even closer to the area were eating. As it is Latias doesn't like having people behind her when she's eating, not even walking past like they were. I growl again, but it has less effect this time. And by less effect, I mean he gets even closer to the head of my kill, and Latias' lunch.

This is why humans aren't very adapted for survival. Yes they have opposable thumbs, but they are also quite stupid. Not all of them. But certain ones. Like Jay, who despite having two very dangerous animals now growling and barring their teeth at him, is STILL about to touch the scyther head with his boot.

Luckily for said appendage, Bianca stops him a pace short, grabbing hold of his shoulder.

"What did I say about disturbing their catch when they're eating? Seriously, don't."

"What? They're not eating this bit"

There's reasons for that. One, facial muscles are not incredibly nutritious. Two, the brain is not that tasty most of the time. And three, apparently if you eat the brain you sometimes catch pokerus.

"They don't normally eat the heads. Why do you even care?"

"Just interested, is all". Honestly, he sounds like a human toddler. No reason, just 'want to'. It's just stupid.

Bianca sighs and looks at me. I try and relax my facial features a bit. No need to tell her to back off, she knows the rules.

"Latios, can Jay take the head?"

Well, since she's asked nicely, I guess he could. I'm not going to eat it, I doubt Cubone would and Latias won't care. I ask her first though.

"You want the head?"

"Let the boy have his toy" is Latias response. I don't know why he wants it either, but I appreciate his interest in my kill. Yet again I've shown him how my raw power is no match for his idiocy. He proberbly struggles putting on trousers.

I fly up and - with my snout - roll the head towards Bianca. It rolls funny because of the shape of the reptilian skull, but I eventually stop it at Bianca's feet. I wait for my reward and after a few seconds I get the pat on the head I was waiting for. "Your welcome!" I say as I fly back over to where I was eating. I keep my eyes on Jay though.

Bianca steps aside and Jay stands next to it, before rolling it over with his foot.

"Oh cool! You can see it's spine and the nerve thingies and everything!"

Bianca slaps her forehead and groans.

"Honestly Jay, you sound like you're about eight."

Jay's too engrossed in the scyther head to listen to her. Personally, I can see why he might be interested. Males of any species - as a default - like dead things, which is either morbid or curious depending on your outlook. Bianca gives up on him in the end and concentrates instead on the initial reason she actually came to see us. She speaks up and puts on the higher pitched voice she always uses when we're engrossed in a different activity to the one she's trying to get us to do.

"Anyway, you three?"

Me and Cubone are listening, but Latias is still eating. Bianca makes the tounge clicking noise to get Latias' attention, making her raise her head from dinner. In the background, Jay continues to move the skull around with his foot.

"People have started to arrive now, so when you've finished that, pop over and say hello, okay?"

Me and Latias nod, and Cubone makes a 'yes' kind of noise.

Bianca is about to drag Jay away when she remembers one other thing.

"Give yourselves a wash BEFORE you come over"

Good point. Less people would like to tell Latias how fluffy she is if she's got bits of scyther lung all over her snout. Me, I don't care, but it might scare the guests and that would ruin the party.

Another round of nodding and Bianca walks around behind me, dragging Jay with her. Latias watches with a keen eye as they go near her prized berries, and I turn around too to make sure Jay doesn't step on any. Bianca looks at it and asks Latias.

"Can I have a berry Latias?" She asks.

Latias doesn't mind people having the berries that she's picked, she takes it as a compliment if anything. So long as they ask. If it's a pokemon and they just try and steal it, they generally end up as dessert. If they ask, she's really motherly (Well, sisterly) and'll point out the best ones for their ailments and that kind of thing. If they ask. And she's in a good mood. If not, well...

"Sure, take some!" she coos at her, a nod of the head assisting Bianca's interpretation.

Jay looks wary as Bianca leans over and takes a handful of berries from the pile. Standing back up, she extends the hand with the berries out to Jay.

"You want one?"

Jay inspects them suspiciously.

"Are they safe to eat?"...

No, Jay, Latias deliberately picked the berries that explode into tiny needles the moment they enter your mouth. Of course they're safe, otherwise neither female would let him eat them.

"Uh, Yeah. Otherwise I wouldn't be offering them would I?" Is Bianca's response.

Jay picks up the topmost berry from her hand and looks at it even closer. He glances up like he's really not sure about eating the edible thing, but Bianca chucks the whole load into her mouth and now Jay doesn't have an option not to eat them unless he wants to look weak. He grudgingly puts the berry in his mouth and chews a few times before swallowing. Thankfully, he doesn't pass a comment.

"Now come on, we've got to get all the guests sorted!"

With that, she starts pulling Jay along by the crook of his arm.

Once they're out of earshot, Latias gives her opinion of Jay.

"I really, really, Really, REALLY, hate that guy. I mean, firstly, he asks for a bit of our food and then just kicks it around, then he thinks the berries I get aren't safe to eat, it's just... It's..." at this point she's lost for words so she just growls for a bit.

Eventually, she finishes off her growling spree with "Males! All the same!".

Than continues tucking into the food that I caught.

Bianca is right, Latias is definitely in heat. Irrational, mood swings and I may be mistaken but she's starting to smell a lot more pleasant all of a sudden. Which is apparently a natural animal thing, but I won't dwell on it for now...

Cubone glances at me and does a mini 'you're on your own' shoulder-shrug, before going back to his scyther leg, which is almost picked clean. I still feel sorry that he hasn't eaten much, so I offer him a trade.

"Cubone?" He looks up from his leg. "If you want some of the meat from here, we can swap? I can try the other leg". It's a fair trade. There are more insides to be had in the torso, but it's more squishy organs than tough muscle, which the legs look like they have plenty of.

"Really? Okay!".

I take one last nibble from the scyther's chest before swapping places with Cubone, biting off and starting to eat the remaining leg as Cubone delves into the remains of the scyther's torso.

We must have been eating for an hour when Latias finally flies away from the scyther and tells us she wants to meet Bianca's friends. By that time, all that's left is bone.

"I think we should join the party now" she and announces, flying in front of both me and Cubone.

Judging by the sun, it's not even 3 o'clock yet, so they must have arrived early. But never mind, there's not much else to have here. Cubone's even eaten the skin, which me and Latias don't find particularly tasty. Then again, we all have different tastes.

"Sure, why not?" Me and Cubone both say in unison.

"Wash first though!" Latias shouts out, before unexpectedly hydro pumping both me and Cubone.

You know what I said about irrational behaviour?

After she stops, she laughs at both of us, a sweet coo that sounds chopped up. I got to admit, it took me by suprise. So Cubone wouldn't have had a single clue what was going to happen. But it wasn't that funny. I turn my neck to cast a glance at Cubone, and realize why Latias is laughing.

Whereas I have feathers that water will just slide off, Cubone has fur. The water hasn't slid off him in the same manor, and it looks like he absorbed most of it. All of his fur, from head to toe, even around his eyes near his skull mask, is soaking wet and sticking to itself.

"Not. Funny." He manages to spit out, which just makes Latias laugh harder. I've got to admit, he looks quite funny. Before he looked like some kind of child's furry cuddly toy. He now looks like said toy had been through the washing several times. I do a tiny chuckle and he looks at me.

"Don't just stand there! Revenge?"

He's got a point actually.

I use a water cannon on Latias, who's cute little laugh turns into a kind of blubbering noise in an instant. After a few seconds, I stop and observe her reaction.

She's glaring at me, and not in a nice way. Normally neither of us mind the other cleaning us. In fact, Latias just loves to mess with my down (which is what I've been informed a coat of feathers is called) at the most inappropriate of times, but I think she draws the line between sibling duties and suprise bath to the face.

She shakes herself to get dry (She always does, even though it's pointless because water doesn't stick to us), before casting an evil glare at Cubone, like he's the one to blame for the suprise bath even though he didn't fire the water beam.

"I think someone needs drying off".

Cubone makes the connection between 'Drying Off' and an animal that can breathe fire, and immidiatly jumps to the right. He needn't though, Latias was only joking. Cubone does look quite flammable, and that wouldn't be nice at all.

"Anyway, we're clean. Lets go meet the party!" Latias cheers before flying round in a circle a few times and then setting off in the direction of the clearing.

I sigh and look at a still-soaking Cubone. "Hop on"

I lower a wing down for him and he walks onto my back, grabbing ahold of my scruff like it's a saddle. No need to tell him to hold on then.

I set off in pursuit of Latias, going as fast as I can partly to catch up with her but also because it might dry off Cubone in the process.

By the time I reach the clearing, Latias is already surrounded by 5 of Bianca's girly friends, each of which is petting her in some way. Latias knows each of them by name, too, whereas I'm just about aware that the long hair means they are female.

As she's being petted, she's going around and complimenting each person outloud. Though they still can't understand her.

"Wow Emily is that a new blouse? Love the way you caught that bag thief! Ooh Katy, great the hair! Wait, wait... Who's that?"

As me and Cubone arrive, Latias backs away from the group, looking at one of the group that doesn't look familiar.

"Who are you? Are you Bianca's friend? Did she say you could come here? INTRUDER! BIANCA! LATIOS!"

Latias flies lower and further away from the unknown person. I'm torn on what to do: Bianca let the person in, but I don't recogniser her apperence and Latias clearly considers her a threat. Before I can come to a decision, though,, Bianca herself appears from the food table and grabs ahold of Latias by the wing tip.

"Cool it Latias!" - in her confusion, she's pulled her ears back and started to growl a bit - "Take a sniff. See, it's just Jade."

Latias looks unsure before edging towards 'Jade'. After a tense few seconds, she gets within half a meter of her. 'Jade' has (Very bravely) held her hand out for Latias to smell, at waist height where Latias is floating. Latias gives it a quick sniff before recognising the smell and cooing happily, rubbing her head against the outstretched hand.

"Oh it's JADE! You didn't look like Jade!" She squeals as she goes to give jade an apologetic rub on the cheek with her snout. Bianca explains.

"Sorry about that. She didn't recognise you because you'd dyed your hair."

Now Bianca mentions it, I remember who it is. She's right, it's Jade, just her hair - which used to be a bright shade of red - is now an even brighter shade of blue. We couldn't identify her smell from a distance because they're all wearing different 'perfumes'. Because apparently the natural scent they produce isn't enough to attract a mate.

All this happens with me completely ignored in the background, which is fine by me. Cubone has other ideas though.

"Bianca! Bianca? Us?!"

His grunt-like communications travel surprisingly far and Bianca turns to face us, as well as two of the group who weren't tickling Latias' chin/ears/wings.

"Cubone! What happened?"

Bianca is obviously referencing the fact that Cubone is absolutely soaked. I fly closer to the group as Cubone answers.

"Latias. That's what happened"

"Did Latias water cannon you?"

"Uh Hu"

"Yeah, sorry... I think I've got a towel under the tables that I was going to put berries on, but it looks like you need it more..."

Bianca rushes off to fetch the towel and one of the girls waves her hand at me. It looks like they want me to join in.

I fly over and give a little cheering for the benefit of those there. I immediately regret doing it when I see the one person that I do know by name. And the only reason why I know that is so I know to avoid them at all costs.

"Hi Latios!" she screeches when she sees me. "How are you?"

Her name is Amy. I'd just call her annoying though. Actually, it's not just annoying, her obsession with me borders on creepy.

"I'm okay, Thanks. Cubone wants to say hi too"

On my back, Cubone gives out a "Hi", but it goes ignored/unheard by everyone. Amy starts stroking my neck for no reason, and it's all I can not to bite her hand off.

"Your coats gotten shinier! I bet you spend forever cleaning yourself!"

Now, normally, I wouldn't mind this attention, but it's coming from this obsessed thing. If money was worth anything to me, I'd bet all of it that she won't leave me alone for the whole party. She's oblivious to my distaste though and continues talking to me.

"You've gotten plumper too! What are you eating?"

Cubone can sense my discomfort and laughs. "Look at you, Latios. Babe magnet here"

I turn my head to the side. I'm not able to see him, but he gets the idea that I'm talking to him.

"I'm not the one who's about the be wrapped up in a blanket and carried around in someone's arms." I retort, a flick on the head directing him to Bianca and the impending blanket.

Amy moves out of the way - irritated by me ignoring her, no doubt - as I fly over to Bianca, Cubone on my back. She says hi and leans across to start wrapping Cubone in the blanket, but I can't see it properly because he's on my back and I can't turn my neck enough. As she does this, she mutters me a thank you.

"Thanks for holding him, Latios"

She lifts him off my back and I'm no longer limited in my movements to keep Cubone on my back. I do a barrel roll, just because, and rember to respond to Bianca's thanks.

"You're welcome!" I tell her back. Humans love it when people say "Thank you" or "you're welcome". I fly over to join Latias, who is still complimenting each girl and letting them feel how soft her feathers have gotten. Especially her wing feathers, which I don't like getting touched because they're a lot more fragile. But Latias loves the attention too much to let that bother her.

"Hi!" I coo to the group, and they part to let me fly next to Latias. Amy rejoins the group, looking right at me the entire time. It's disturbing, because most humans tend to let their eyes wander. And most of them focus on what they're looking at. Amy is looking at me, doing neither, and biting her bottom lip. Why? It's like she's looking at me but thinking about something else. I make a note to avoid eye contact with her, that would just make it even weirder.

Meanwhile, Jade has pulled out some oversized sun glasses from who knows where. "Oh! I SO know what would suit you!".

She unfolds the glasses and holds them facing away from her, bringing her arms to her chest level, the same level I'm flying on. Every single one of us realizes what is going to happen at the same time. By the looks of it, she's going to try and put the sunglasses on my head.

Not that I have anything against that, but I prefer my eyesight unhindered. I back away, half hoping that Latias will stop them, but she's not doing anything. Except from smiling at me, which I think means she thinks me wearing the glasses will be funny.

Luckily for me, Bianca - with a wrapped up Cubone in her arms - joins the group. Unluckily, she must also think the glasses are a humorous idea, and just stands and watches with Cubone in her arms. I'm still backing away, but now Jade is advancing towards me.

"No. NO! No glasses!" I shout at her, but they all just giggle. I float lower and growl a bit too, but Bianca knows I'm not serious and just tells Jade that I "Don't mean it"

Which is true. I'd never bite one of Bianca's friends for something so trivial as putting glasses on me. Come to think of it, they'll probably just find the glasses funny, which isn't really a problem. Latias is here, and she'll be able to warn me if there's a threat I can't see because of the glasses.

I stop flying backwards and let Jade put the glasses on me, which admittedly she does with great care, placing the arms of the glasses on the bits between my head and ears, before gently lowering the lenses over my eyes.

It's darker than I expected, and vision is limited either side by the frames. Nevertheless I can still see the group of girls all burst out laughing.

"What? What's funny?"

I ask them, but their own babble is much more engrossing then my inunderstandable speach. Said babble includes phrases like "Deal With It." in a very intentional deadpan voice, to "Soooo Cute!" in a high pitched voice.

Latias flies round so she's facing me, her snout a few centimeters from my covered eyes. Instead of staying still, she's moving around, moving around the entirety of my head but staring into the glasses lenses the entire time.

"Oh cool I can see myself. HELLOOOOOO?"

It is VERY dark behind these glasses. I can barely see the furthest tree away. Admittedly its about 15 meters away, but all the same. Do not like.

"Latias. The glasses. Take them off. Please? Latias? Glasses?"

She's too busy admiring her reflection, and the girls are too busy laughing to help or understand me. I unfold my arms to try and take the glasses off, but as expected, they don't reach far enough. I fold my arms back in and try shaking my head, which makes Latias startled, but still nothing. I can't see either side of me either, there could be anything there, and I wouldn't be able to see it.

"SOMEONE! TAKE THE GLASSES OFF! PLEASE! DO NOT LIKE!" I shout, shaking my head the entire time, but the glasses are NOT coming off.

At this point, someone realizes that I don't like the glasses. Unluckily for me, that someone is Amy.

"Oh come on girls, stop laughing. Look, the poof guy's clearly scared."

She walks closer, extending her arms out and speaking in a friendly voice.

"Hold your head still". I stop shaking my head and Latias flies out of the way to let Amy past, though personally I can't see why Latias couldn't have taken the glasses off.

Amy reaches forwards and does something with the back of the glasses, working them loose from my ears. I help her and move my ears back. The glasses come off without so much as bumping my eyes. Amy took more care taking them off than Jade did putting them on.

"Thanks Amy!" I coo to her, flying to head height and trying to immitate what Latias does when she's thankful to one of Bianca's girly friends. From what I can remeber, Latias just makes a lot of noise while licking them on the cheek.

The key to thing to point out is that Latias does that instinctively because she thinks that she's cleaning them. I, on the other hand, know that that isn't the case most of the time. Humans can get more 'germs' (Which from what Bianca says I think that they're small animals that live in liquids like saliva) from us than they can get clean. An example of this is that my tounge still has scyther blood on it, and Lorenzo always makes a point of not touching any blood that isn't his own, because it can make him ill.

I content myself with a lot of cooing near her ear and nudging her head with my snout, which I think is a thankful gesture. And she's laughing, so she clearly likes it. Although unlike most people who lean away when Latias harasses them, it's almost like Amy is leaning INTO my head.

"Awww thanks Latios!"

It's while everyone is looking at me that Cubone draws attention to himself.

"Really Latios? Those glasses made you look ^really^ cool".

I don't have chance to retort with an equally sarcastic comment on his attire (and by that I mean 'Damp Blanket'), because before I can, the girls turn around to see what made that noise, and instantly swoon. I guess the blanket increases his baby like apperence.

For some reason, the moment everyone starts talking to him, they develop a speach impediment, because they all start talking high pitched and making' guchi-goo' noises.

"Isn't he just adorable in that little blanket?"

"Soooo cute! "

"Who's a little brown ball of fur?"

"Awwww why is Cubone wrapped up in a blanket?"

Cubone looks suprised by the girls all of a sudden trying to be as close to him as possible. He looks up to his carrier, Bianca, for assistance.

"Bianca! Big people! Very close! Back off a bit! Please?"

To the girls, it must have sounded like he was crying or something, because they all back off and try blaming each other. "Now look, you've upset him! Poor Cubone!"

I fly over so I'm directly infront of him, the crowd now dispersed. I think they've all gone to look at the cake, having left Cubone on his own. I can tease him about that.

"I didn't have you down as that way inclined". Gay pokemon are rare, but not unheard of. Rare because they are normally the weakest ones and so easier to attack.

"What?"

"You made the females go away. Don't you like them?"

"Well yeah, but they're the wrong species. Unless you'd mate any of them?" He says with a somewhat cynical tone.

I take a brief glance behind me and agree with his tone. There's just nothing attractive about the human females, to me at least. Jay, on the other hand, can probably find at least 20 separate attractive features, and is probably steaming that human etiquette forbids multiple mate partnerships. Especially with all these females in sight.

At the same time, making he probably can't define a single characteristic that makes a Latias attractive to me. For me, a nice vivid red color, a good coo and good sized wings are the 3 thing I like most. Also, I doubt Jay chose Bianca for a mate based upon her ability to pick berries, whereas I consider that an important feature too.

During my glance around I notice that Amy is still looking at me. It reminds me of a programme about brain damaged toddlers that have fixations with things like screwdrivers or scraps of paper. Except when I turn around, she stops doing that lip biting thing and looks away quickly. I go back to talking with Cubone.

"Your right. I bet Jay's really stressed though. All these females but he can only mate the one."

Considering Bianca is within whispering distance, she'd find our loud conversation a bit vulgar, even though it's just natural. But she can't understand our language, and so is happily shouting to the girls who have started crowding around the table with the cake on.

As Bianca walks Cubone over to the table to join the group, both me and him have a chuckle at Jay's expense.


	29. Chapter 29: Amy

Review replies (You know who you are, I have too many guests now...):  
- Thanks! That really means a lot to me!  
- Well, it's... Interesting... That you think that way. And slightly disturbing, if you don't mind me saying. Then again, I'm asexual and don't feel anything towards either gender of any species, so I'm not one to talk about that kind of thing (yes, Everything I'm writing with regards to that is from observation not experience. And yes, that is actually a medical state, so deal with it). I suggest you Google rule 34 if you really want that kind of thing :) I've made this one more... _tense_ though, that seems your kind of thing?  
- An7 - Well, people are mysterious things. Some people are petrified by flying 37000 ft from the ground in a compressed metal tube that's 50 meters long and only 0.2 mm thick and travelling at 300 miles an hour, others are scared by an arachnid that's about the size of a 1 pence coin. Given that I think it's fair to doubt what most people think.

In response to your requests, guys, I've spiced things up a bit - emphasis on the 'a bit' - towards the end of this one. *_Please don't sack me Andy*_.

* * *

"Where's Tony?" Cubone looks up and asks Bianca, not that she understands what he's saying. Which is proven when her response doesn't answer the question.

"No, there's another one of my friends, plus a few of Lorenzo's friends, to arrive"

Cubone just stays silent. Repeating it isn't going to help Bianca understand it any more, and besides, we're going to the cake. Odds are Bianca will explain while they're all looking at it.

She joins the group with Cubone in hand, but there isn't enough room for me on this side of the table, so I fly around to the other side where Latias is. I'm now facing the girls and can see the look of awe in their faces as they gaze at the cake.

"Did you make this?" asks the girl that I think Latias called 'Grace' at one point.

"Nah, this is way better than what I could do. We know a person who makes cakes, he's called Tony... "

"Tony the one who also does ice creams?" A girl called Katy interrupts.

"Yeah, that Tony. He's actually here, he just went into the kitchen to make potato salad"

Quizzical looks from everyone.

"He said that 'No party buffet is complete without potato salad' ".

There's one of those awkward silences, until Latias eventually breaks it by squealing really loudly and flying right above Emily, ducking her head down and grabbing her beret - they seem to be the fashion, everyone is wearing them - in her mouth and flying around so she's facing her off, about 3 meters away and at head height, the beret dangling from her mouth.

Bianca makes a rather obvious observation.

"Looks like Latias wants to play with you!"

Emily responds in a determined voice.

"Well she better get used to loosing then". Brave words, and I'd be inclined to believe them, except I've seen Latias play this game before. No one ever wins but her if it's against a human. Or even a group of humans.

She starts well though, and I fly up for a better, arial view.

Emily is slowly going in a wide circle around Latias, keeping the distance between them the same and making Latias rotate round to keep her in her sights. They're both looking each other dead in the eye, but I notice, when Latias has turned the entire way round so her tail fins are to the crowd, that at Emily's side, at her hip level, she's got her palm outstretched and moving her fingers together, backwards and forwards.

What does that mean? It's kind of like what Bianca does when she wants us to come to her. But if Emily is taunting Latias, like that movement suggests, why isn't it at eye level, where Latias is looking?

Emily has stopped turning around Latias now. So she can't see when Bianca turns to the rest of the girls and puts her finger to her lips. They were silent anyway, but they all nod as Bianca starts to silently creep towards Latias, Cubone still in her arms.

Emily starts talking in a gradual, measured voice to stop Latias from being startled.

"Come on then. Get a little closer. What are you, scary bird?"

Latias, in comparison, doesn't bother with the cool and measured voice thing and goes straight to loud cooing. "I AM NOT A BIRD! Anyway, it's YOUR hat. YOU come and get it"

"Oh but I am..." Emily retorts in a voice that sounds quite dangerous. Like she knows something Latias doesn't. Which she does, because Bianca has started to creep under Latias' underside, our blind spot, due to our eyes being on the top of our heads.

"I know!". Latias screeches with delight and flies backwards about a meter so she can see Bianca, crouched on the floor, reaching for a hat that's no longer there.

"Bianca, you smell to much. And you make too much noise"

Latias has a point. Bianca's smell is quite strong, and grass isn't the quietest surface to walk on.

"Oh you clever little... " Bianca grunts as she lunges for the hat, putting Cubone on the ground in the process. It's not very effective though and Latias just floats a few centimeters higher, and she misses it by a tantalising amount.

Emily runs to joins in, runs up to Latias, and does an unnaturally high jump, but it doesn't matter how high it is, Latias can still dodge. Which she does, diving down and swooping past an on-the-floor Bianca.

Emily lands with a roll, which gets her a round of applause from the girls, before whirring round and going after Latias again.

All the while, Cubone is chasing Latias around but not really getting any closer to the hat, as even he can't jump to the height that Latias swoops to.

Whereas Bianca is just going for 'try to get the hat', Emily is working with some kind of strategy, slowly pushing Latias back and reducing the size of her jumps, giving Latias the illusion that she's getting tired. But I bet she's doing that to lul her into a false sene of security. Either way, the hat battle is slowly moving further down the clearing, and I see an opportunity for some food.

I fly around so I'm on the other side of the table, facing the girls. I select Katy to nag, she's the most normal one there. I have a feeling that if I tried nagging Amy, she'd end up trying to mate me or something.

"Oh hello Latios!" Katy exclaims as I fly so my head is just inches from her own. I keep my wings in a V shape so the rest of the girls can watch Latias try and keep the hat.

"Hi Katy!" I say back as I go and rub my head against hers, buttering her up before I ask for some food. I do some cooing noises too, and she starts laughing.

"Oh thank you Latios!" she giggles and I fly back and lower, before wedging my head inbetween her body and her arm, which normally makes them move their arms from their sides and pet me, which she does.

She strokes my neck from my head to about half way down, all the time commenting on on how smooth and shiny its gotten. I'm flattered, but I'm here for food.

After a bit of that, I fly up and hover over the pink fish that we had yesterday, unwrapped on the table, about a third of it left.

I could just take it, it's not wrapped so there's nothing stopping me. But past experience has taught me that if I do that then Bianca will find some way of disciplining me, whereas if I persuade a friend to do it then Bianca doesn't do much, really. She doesn't want to tell off her friend, but she can't have a go at me because I'm just eating the food being thrown at me.

"Katy! Katy! Food? Fish? Please?"

Katy had already turned when I'd flown around, but she's looking at the fish now.

"You want to be fed?"

"Please?" I nod too, trying to look as innocent as possible to persuade her.

"Well... Okay. The fish?" She points to the unwrapped pink fish below me and I do another nod. She picks up the plate and I fly forwards to rub the side of my face against hers again, letting her know how thankful I am, again.

She just giggles. "Okay okay, I get it. Come over here then!"

I fly back round to the front of the girls, arriving before Katy has even finished turning around. The others see what she's doing and decide to watch me being fed instead of the now repetitive spectacle of Latias with the beret. In the background I can still hear her coos.

I hover down to waist height and focus on the plate that Katy is holding, the smell of the fish radiating from it.

Katie slowly peels off a bit of the fish with two fingers before dangling it from her outstretched arm. There's a pause.

"THROW IT ALREADY!" I shout once I receive a list she's teasing me.

"Patience!" she cautions, and, with a flick of the wrist, throws the chunk of fish over my head, alarmingly fast. I didn't see it, it was that quick a throw.

I turn around to look for where it is, or where it landed. But she's either thrown it really high, or really far, because I can't see it anywhere in front of me.

There's a giggling behind me, which develops into an all out laugh as I float lower to try and catch the individual chunk's scent over the smell of the original fish, girly perfume, Latias and that other smell I couldn't identify.

After searching for about ten seconds, Katie speaks up.

"Looking for something? Latios?"

It's funny she should ask that, because when I turn around to tell her, in her palm she's got a slice of fish in her hand that looks exactly like the one she threw and that I'm looking for right... Now...

If my paws could reach my head, I'd face palm. But instead, I make do with flattening out my ears and closing my eyes slightly, which I've decided makes up my 'You've got to be kidding me' face.

"Hahaha! You should have seen your face! You were all, 'I'm going to catch the food!' and then fly off when I hadn't even thrown it!" Katie gloats, before going down on her haunches with the fish in her palm, facing upwards.

This is the best way to feed us since its virtually impossible for us to bite any of the hand by accident since its below the food and our heads would get in the way.

"That's not fair" I note as I fly over to get the fish. Her impression of me wasn't exactly accurate either, my voice isn't THAT high pitched. Either way, I'm being fed now and aren't exactly in a position to complain.

I lower my head over the slice of fish, before biting it lightly enough to pick it up but not so much it comes apart. Then I rotate round and away a bit, so I'm parallel to the girls, and about a meter and a half away. Its not that I think that they'd steal my food. But Katy has already pretended to throw it, so it wouldn't suprise me if she withdrew it after I'd had one nibble.

All the girls make an 'aww' noise at the sight of me eating, which is nice. Not that I'd consider myself eating a 'cute' thing, they'd probably throw up if they saw the scyther I had for lunch.

The fish tastes the same as yesterday, which is to say 'Very, Very tasty'. I take small bites from the slice as it rests on the grass, the individual bites making the taste last much longer than if I just swallowed it whole.

"Kate, pass us a piece! I wanna feed him too!", a voice that sounds like Jade shouts up. Which means more food for me!

I quickly chew down the remaining food, before flying back round and over to the smell of the new piece of fish, which is in Jade's hand, the same way as Katie was holding hers - hand out, fish in palm, fingers flat and together.

I'm wary about taking food from 'Jade'. I can see the facial resemblance, but her hair doesn't look like Jade's and I can't smell her properly from this distance over all the perfumes.

I approach her slowly then. She could be a threat, after all. I know all my friends, so if I don't know something, it's either an enemy or pray. And she's too skinny to be any nutritional value as pray.

She senses this and speaks in a calm voice, I can tell she's not trying to startle me. Which is good, because in this state I'd be inclined to attack.

"It's okay, look. Don't be scared. Your hungry? I've got food?"

Yeah, stupid. I know. It's only one of the three most irresistible smells ever. But I need to know that this is the real Jade.

Eventually, I'm close enough to smell her wrist, which is not only where humans like to sample perfumes but also one of the places where they smell the most, after perhaps the underarms and feet, neither of which are at a tactical advantage to smell right now.

I sniff around her wrist, getting ahold of her scent. It's masked by some perfumy stuff, but once I smell it I know right away that this is the real Jade. The color of her hair made a lot of difference to how she looked though.

I start eating the food out of her hand, taking small bites one at a time from the fish cube.

"How come he eats out of your hand and not mine?" Katy quietly asks.

"He likes me better, clearly."

That's not the case. It's just at the moment, Katie has pretended to throw me food but Jade hasn't. So she's less likely to try and take it away in mid bite. I nibble down the cube while the girls make 'Aww' noises, until eventually I reach the last bit, which I very delicately lick off Jade's hand. She is laughs the entire time

"That... That tickles!"

I finish eating and fly up to her neck, before gently headbutting that, cooing a 'thank you' while I do. I don't know why, but the headbutting thing seems natural, like I should do it to everyone I like. Bianca says I do it to mark territory, by rubbing my scent on them, but that isn't true. Humans aren't territory, they're family. But I guess it would make any pokemon going to attack them think twice if they knew I knew them.

The real reason I do it is because it makes the person - Jade - laugh, smile and be happy, which in turn makes me feel good. Jade leans her head back over mine and I can feel her face muscles smile wider.

"Your welcome" she says in a nice, pleasent tone.

Just as I'm about to break it off, Amy shouts up. I fly back a bit, ready to tackle the loud noise. But it's just Amy, looking quite jealous for some reason.

Her friends tell her to 'be quieter' when they see my reaction.

"Sorry... Can I feed him now?"

In response, Katy passes the dish of food over to Amy, who takes a sizable chunk out to feed me, going down on her haunches to hand the fish to me.

I fly down to her and take the fish off her hand, before taking it over to the grass and eating it in a similar way to when Katy fed me.

"Hey!" Amy calls out, clearly annoyed that I've just taken the fish out of her hand, instead of me eat it from her palm.

No offense to her, but I feel she's getting too attached. She's reminding me an awful lot like Green before I let her down. I think the word she's trying to be is seductive, although 'manic' is a lot closer to what she's actually being.

I see, though, out of the corner of my eye, that she stands up and starts walking towards me.

I growl to let her know to stop, and the remaining girl - who's so far said very little - gives Amy some good advice.

"Remeber what Bianca says? She says, don't go near them when they're eating on their own. Even if they like you"

Good words, and I'd like to think that Amy would follow them, but she's not. She carries on walking closer to me, getting near my wing, nattering back to the girls.

"Don't be silly Pedro!" - What kind of a name is Pedro for a girl? I thourght her name was Grace anyway? - "He wouldn't hurt me. He adores me, isn't that right?"

Enough is enough, now. I NEED to get this notion that she - or any other human female - is somehow attractive to me, out of her head. And make her listen to Bianca's advice on approaching pokemon that still hold wild values and instincts. And I know the perfect way to do it.

I fly up to her head height, cooing playfully like I'm playing Latias' game. I swoop past her and nab her beret off her head, before flying towards the woods. I can still hear her though, and she falls for my trick like a slowbro with a street performer.

I stop at the edge of the woods, turn around and hover vertically, paws still folded in and beret dangling from my mouth. I'll admit, this is fun.

"See. I TOLD you he likes me. Look, I don't see him playing with any of you guys. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get my hat"

She starts running towards me. "I'm coming for ya!"

Excellent. I fly back round to face the woods again, plunging in quick enough to make it look like a challenge, but slow enough so she'll catch up.

Even then, I have to turn around and float vertically a few times while she looks around for me, sees me, and then runs after me, at which point I turn back around and fly closer into the forest. Eventually though, I make it to where I wanted to be.

It's the small area where me, Cubone and Latias ate. The scyther corpse is still there, complete (Well, incomplete) with detached scyther head. A guaranteed put-off for human females. They hate dead things. Especially suprise dead things.

I hover down to the ground and - dropping the beret at my side - start nibbling on the tiny bits of meat that remain. If this doesn't make her stop being attracted to me, I don't know what will.

"There you are! I was wonde..." She interrupts her sentence, and I know that she's been suprised by the corpse that I'm eating from. Although I've noticed that in between leaving the party and her arriving here, she's undone the two top buttons of her shirt. Perhaps she's just too warm.

Here's my plan. See, even in the event that the sight of me eating fresh raw meat doesn't disgust her enough (which Bianca has said many times it does), it should at least show her that the two of us don't share common interests: I. E. I'm an animal and eat raw meat, she's a human and they have to cook their food, and the two are not compatible.

There's a pause as she looks at me, with a somewhat... Flirty expression?

"Did you kill that yourself?" She asks in an amazed voice. I'll be honest, I was expecting her to scream or something, or at least be surprised. But the fact that she's amazed at least leaves room for the whole animal-human incompatible thing.

"Yeah. So back off"

She is getting close, and it is my kill, after all.

"That is so... Savage!" she says it in a tone like this is a good thing. Which she shouldn't think it is. She's supposed to think it's disgusting, or at very least a symbol of our differences.

And she's STILL getting closer.

"BACK. OFF!" I shout louder, but it does nothing. She gets even closer, leaning over like she's planning on touching it.

I growl and fly directly over the body, shielding it from her. The message is clear. If she wants any of this, it'll be through me. Which equates to not getting it, since I'm effectively invincible against her.

"Oooooh... Feisty devil aren't you!" she squeals, though not in terror. I don't know what the word feisty means, but it can't be good.

Either way, her hand is STILL getting closer, but it's go to the point where I can see what she's getting closer to. It's not my kill she's after. She's holding out her hand to try and... Pat me on the head? That's what it looks like.

Well any contact with her is bad right now, but there's still one more thing I can do to get her to realize our differences.

As fast as I can, I turn around and grab a bone from the scyther, wrenching it from the body with a jerk of my head and a snapping noise. Bianca hates that noise, so so should Amy. It's a rib I've snapped off, and it's completely inanimate, but for the sake of intimidating Amy, I shake it and growl like it's a fresh kill. After that performance, I turn to face her, and she's still crouched down, arms on knees like she's been waiting for me.

I fly in front of her, raising my head slightly so the bone is visible.

The bone is not like in the films. It's not in the remotest sense 'white'. It's covered in blood, minuscule ligament entrails, gooey liquids and general stuff that humans find vile. Oh, and it's got a crack down the side where my teeth have split it.

"A present? For me? Really?" She says in a kind voice, like I'm doing something nice.

Right. I stopped giving out bits of a kill to humans as presents about 30 years ago. I kind of get the point that they don't like raw meat. If I WAS to give her a gift, I'd be something humans like, like apples or shiny things. So WHY does this mad girl think it's some kind of gift? It's not even a gift that I'd give to Latias. It's half chewed and not very meaty. Barely even a gift. It's the kind of gift I'd give to a starving pokemon that comes to beg for food. If said pokemon isn't particularly tasty, in which case it becomes food.

Amy takes her right hand and pinches the bone from my mouth with two fingers, clearly not happy with full on grabbing it with her hand.

"Well, if that's your gift, I think I better give you mine..." She says, suddenly standing up.

YES! She's leaving! That IS the perfect gift.

Oh wait, she not. Wait... What? She's unbuttoning the rest of her blouse. Which is unusual, because female humans regard that... Area... With some reserve, and keep it covered in public. Well, the girls with 'self respect', Bianca says. Either way, that ISN'T normal behavior.

I start to fly slowly backwards - no mean feat in itself - to get away from this quite clearly insane human being. She smells like she's almost in heat, but all the same, even Latias isn't even this bizarre in heat, and she only has one heat a year, whilst human females have 12.

Amy starts walking after me though, unbuttoning the last few buttons of her blouse. I don't want to flee or do any sudden movements though, because she might go completely rabid and try eating my kill or something. Right now she's being so irrational it wouldn't surprise me.

As I feel my tail feathers bump against the wall of the garden, she finishes with the shirt and opens it so her torso is fully visible.

"What do you think?" She asks, pushing out her now almost fully exposed chest, clearly the subject matter at hand. Only one item of clothing actually stops it from being completely exposed, which is a black lacy thing which I think Bianca calls a 'bra'. Only the females wear them because only they have breasts because it's their job to feed the young. From what I can gather.

Latias doesn't have a chest or breasts as such, since we're not mammals and we don't feed the young with self produced milk. Otherwise we'd definitely have died after hatching (what with having no mother). But I know that's the purpose of human female breasts, because I see infant humans feeding from their mothers in the cafes when I'm doing a fly around.

According to Amy's behaviour now though, I'm expected to find her breasts attractive too, which would make sense since human females generally save the privilege of seeing them to their mates or offspring, and it's to the males advantage since they're a measure of how good a mate the female will be. I can't say that I find them particularly enticing though, I've no reason to. It's the human anatomy. Why should I - a completely different species - find it attractive?

I'm too busy mulling over her motives and don't give a response quick enough, so Amy takes this as a cue to step her courting up a notch.

She reaches her arms behind her shoulders and - in some wierd kind of dance way - starts walking even closer to me, her hands moving behind her back and exaggerating the amount by which she extends her hips.

"Well then.. I guess I need to be a bit more..." - she pauses for effect - "... Persuasive...". She licks her lips, but I've no idea why. Another thing human males find attractive?

I can't fly any further away, and she's getting so close that her chest is barely a foot from the tip of my snout. I realise too late what she's actually got in mind for me. I think what she's trying to do right now is some kind of intimate performance, the same type most female of most species perform before mating, in order to impress or arouse the male. A mating dance. Although I don't think she's aware that's what she's doing in my opinion.

Every thing I've tried so far has failed to get rid of her, and giving her the scyther bone with the intention of disgusting her even made it worse! And I can't think of anything else to do other than to run away, or call Bianca and get her to sort her friend out. I don't want Latias coming though, because that WOULD be difficult to explain.

"Bianca? BIANCA! BIANCA? HELP!? AMY'S TRYING TO MATE ME!". Nothing happens, Amy doesn't even flinch.

I growl really deeply at her and bar my teeth, one last time, in the hope that she'll get scared. But if anything, she just walks towards me faster.

"We're finally alone now... That means we can do anything...". She says anything in a tone that makes me think that actually she's got one particular thing on her mind. And it's exactly what I feared.

She's made her intentions to mate with me clear, and even though I've rejected her three times now, she's still trying, even though I don't want to. I'd flee, but she's walked me all the way back against the wall of the garden, and I'm blocked in.

Just as she starts pulling the 'bra' from behind her back, I spot an opportunity for escape. The wall is behind me, there's a tree to my left, with a branch blocking the path above me, but to my right I can kind-of turn and fly off.

I start, rotating around and accelerating as fast as I can.

But she's already in the way, hand extended out and flat over my eyes, so I can't see where I'm flying and have to stop to avoid injuring her or myself. She pushes me back to were I was and I've got no option but to let her as I can't see where I'm going.

"Playing hard to get, big boy?" She teases. I at least understand THIS innuendo, and I guess she's right in that aspect. She's a too small for me to physically be able to mate, not that this is going to stop her trying by the looks of it.

She keeps her hands over my eyes and I can hear shuffling about. But this at least gives me time to plan my next escape.

I could escape in milliseconds, but that'd involve at the very least knocking her over and she'd land in the scyther body. It'd put her off me, yeah. But Bianca would probably not feed me human food for a month if I covered her friend in intestine remains.

Eventually, I decide on a plan, and put it into action the moment she lifts her hand from my eyes. When she does, I notice she's not wearing any clothes on her top half at all, which is a state I've only ever seen Bianca and Bianca's mother in when it comes to females.

I flip my feathers over so the invisible coat is facing outwards, and I disappear from Amy's sight. She can't mate me if she can't see me. I hope.

I jet away as fast as I can, my head clearing Amy's shoulder with millimeters to spare before she make so much as a lewd comment.

The same can not be said for the rest of my body though. I never unfolded my arms, and it's a good thing too, because if I hadn't my claws would have raked across her face. As it is, the bump of the shielding on my arm catches her neck.

This wouldn't be an issue if I wasn't going so fast. But I was, and the momentum is sufficient to make her spin a full circle before toppling over.

As I knock her over, she screams out. "I knew you couldn't resist! Now c-" she yells, too crazy to realized I knocked her over in my escape, not the passion she thinks it is. Either way, the moment she hits the ground, she stops talking in mid-sentence.

She's chest-up, knocked out on the ground when I fly over her, thankfully still invisible.

I turn around to fly back to the party, and I see possibly the worst person to see in this situation.

Bianca. Stood next to a tree, not 3 meters from where the whole incident just happened. Jaw open so wide in shock you could fit a basketball in it, if you didn't pop it with your claws.

She puts two and two together and immediately starts shouting.

"LATIOS. GET HERE. VISIBLE. NOW!"

* * *

DUN DUN DUNNNN! Well that's certainly made things... Awkward. Bet you'd like to know what happens next... I'll give you a hint, it involves pain. And a quarter liter of mayonnaise. For Reals.

You get this longer and more... Risqué... chapter because I've not only got a pay rise, but because I've finally exceeded 60 reviews! Yeee ha! *Victory Dance*

Don't forget, you can always check out my deviantart for scenes from the story, free wallpapers and hints as to what's coming up next. Just search '~TheModerator' On Google. If the amount of faves I'm getting is right, it's worth checking out.


	30. Chapter 30: Absol

Put this cheaper out early because I'm on attachment with Boeing for the next two days, and I won't be able to use my phone for various reasons.

INTERESTING ABSOL FACT:  
'Absol' was named as such for many reasons. 'Absol'ution: the ability to resolve error (I. E. Predicting disasters before they happened and warning people, resolving the problem). ab - 'anti' in Latin; sol - 'sun' in Latin; Absol = anti-sun (aka, bad. Like the disasters predicted. Absol is also a dark type, which is without sun). Absol in Japanese is 物騒', which translates to 'dangerous' (again, like the disasters). And in Jewish tradition, the name Absolom is said to bring bad luck, which also runs with Absol being the barer of bad news in the anime. Overall, quite interesting.

* * *

I turn visible right infront of her face. Bad move.

The moment she can see me, she slaps my snout, hard. Hard enough that I become disorientated, wobble in the air and screw my eyes shut for a few seconds.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" I shout at her, eyes still screwed shut. It was unprovoked, after all.

"WHY we're you trying to have your way with one of my friends?" She says. Her voice is about as deep as the ocean. Angry to the point of not even shouting.

"ME mate HER? HELLO? Wrong species."

Bianca glowers at me just as angrily as before, like I hadn't said anything. I switch to psychic and vocals.

"I wasn't trying to mate with her! She was after ME!"

"Really? Then why is AMY the one laid out on the grass with her top off?"

"How could I do that? The buttons on her shirt are too small for my claws. I can barely open a door" I tell her, my verbal tone as matter-of-factly as I can get.

Bianca considers it for a second, I can see her working it out in her facial expression.

"Hmmmm... But why is she on the floor? Is it like one of those nature documentaries with the dominant male thing?" She pulls a face which looks disapproving and disgusted at the same time.

I'll give her credit though, Bianca thinks of everything. That isn't to say everything she thinks of is right.

"No. I knocked her over trying to fly away!"

Bianca raises an eyebrow like that's the worst lie I've ever told, but suspends her suspicion when she hears Amy grunt from the ground. She rushes over, but I beat her to it, eager to prove my innocence.

I fly right infront of Amy's face, filling her field of view, and wait for her reaction. Bianca is about to cry out to stop me, but catches herself mid shout when she hears what Amy has to say after cracking open her eyes.

"Hia handsome. I've been waiting too long. Stop teasing. "

She reaches up to stroke the side of my head, but I fly up and out of reach, letting her see Bianca standing over her, looking confused.

"Amy?"

Amy takes two seconds to cram the the surroundings into her skull before she realises she should be embarrassed. When she does, she immidiatly folds her arms over her exposed chest and goes on the defensive.

"ITS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!". How cliché.

Bianca shakes her head. "Really? Because it looked like Latios here started to take a liking to you. But now you've said that, I think it's the other way round"

There's a silence, and Bianca decides to puncture it by picking up Amy's blouse and offering it to her. Amy looks at me, hesitant to unfold her arms.

"Turn around". Really? She's the one who took her clothes off in front of me in the first place. Bianca to the rescue again.

"I don't think you've noticed, Amy, but Latios is an animal. He's not attracted to us." she says, in a semi-interested manner. "Or any part of us, for that matter." - she gestures her head at Amy's previously exposed chest - "I get changed in front of him all the time". Not strictly true, she doesn't 'all the time'. Only if I happen to be in the same room.

"Especially if I'm having a shower. They always fall asleep in the bathroom if I'm having a shower. They like warm places"

I come to the conclusion that whatever girl-talk is, this is it. Who likes who, who likes what, what likes what, that kind of thing. And showers. Females love showers, and talking about them. I think.

Amy unfolds her arms and sits up, putting the blouse back on and changing the subject back to why she was trying to mate me, searching for justification. Even though there's none.

"I thourght he wanted me to be honest. He gave me a present! He gave me a bit of his kill. That means something right?" She squeals, starting to invent reasons why I might be interested in her even though we've blatantly established I'm not.

"Actually, that's a pretty rubbish gift if you think about it. Nothing special or anything. I don't know if you've noticed, but gifts to 'mates' tend to be extravagant things. Not the leftovers from lunch."

"But he was teasing me back as well?" Amy replies, somewhat confused. Bianca already knows the answer, putting the pieces together in her mind to get the full picture. She's clever like that, plus she knows me well enough to know what I'd do in that situation.

"Actually, I think he was probably telling you to stop. That's generally what growling means"

I can hear Amy mumble, but I'm not sure if Bianca does. "Well I thourght it was like 'roughing up' or something animalistic like that". She mutters as she starts buttoning up her blouse, apparently not bothering with the bra.

"Anyway... I hate to say this, but didn't you notice he wasn't... Excited by you?"

"He headbutted me to the ground! I'd say that was pretty inten-"

"Not that kind of excited. Never mind." Bianca extends a hand outwards, and Amy takes it after a brief hesitation, pulling herself up.

"Bianca?"

"Yes?"

There's a pause and a grunt from both girls, as Amy is pulled to her feet.

"Promise you won't tell anyone about this"

Bianca hesitates, clearly thinking about all the gossip she'd miss out on. But in the end, good nature wins over.

"I won't, I promise. Though I'd stay away from Latios for a while. That's bound to have creeped him out". She's hit the nail on the head there. And conveniently saved me from Amy at the same time.

She turns to look at me anyway, and Bianca rests one hand on my neck, and the other on Amy's shoulder, keeping her a safe distance from me.

Amy looks me dead in the eyes, then starts her speach. It looks like she's on the edge of tears, but I don't know why.

"Latios... I'm sorry... I didn't realise that... Oh, never mind. I'm just sorry".

Without another word, she pulls Bianca's hand off her shoulder and walks back into the trees, presumably to rejoin the party. Bianca watches Amy leave and then looks back at me. And waits until she's out of hearing distance.

"Wow. Some people are wierd right?"

"Don't I know!". I'm not using telepathy any more, so Bianca can't fully understand what I'm saying.

"Did you actually find her... Think of her as a... " I know what she's trying to say, even if she can't say it herself.

"No. No way" I shake my head too to make it clear. Bianca carries on, not surprised by my response.

"Thought so. You know what's worse?"

"Oh no..." I know what this means.

"Katie brought her Absol. As always.". I was right.

"Really? You've got to get her to give up. I'm almost beginning to feel sorry for the poor thing. And she keeps it in the ball all the time."

It's true. Every time Katie comes round, she brings her Absol, and she tries battling me with it every time, and every time she looses. It's mostly because I'm way more powerful and quicker, but it's also because she's just not a very good trainer. Also, whereas she has to tell Absol what to do, I can do whatever I want since I'm technically still wild.

"Oh it'll be fun, you like it really."

She's right, I do like it. But when your beating the same opponent, over and over again, well. It becomes kind of sad. For them. And by them I mean just Katie. Her Absol is nice enough, she enjoys the challenge as much as anyone else. Which means to say that she thinks she's invincible right up until the point where she's fainted.

"Oh, Amy forgot her beret!" Bianca exclaims, grabbing the headgear off the ground and plonking it on top of my head, pushing down my ears. She giggles.

"Come on then, let's get back to the party!" she sets off walking ahead and I follow after, keeping pace with her because overtaking seems rude right now. We make it back to the party and Bianca pats me on the side before suggesting I "go play with Latias". Presumably to keep me away from Amy and, more importantly, her away from me.

Latias is on the opposite side of the garden to the tables and the girls, doing a few pretty patterns and rolls. Cubone is on her back, seemingly clinging on for dear life.

I fly over to her, and I'm about to squeal at her that we should do something fun, but she sees me and gets the first word in, flying over and inspecting the beret that's still on my head, sniffing and looking at it from all angles.

"Where did you go?"

Well, she might find the truth funny. And I can't exactly lie to something that can read my mind. Besides, she'll already figure out from the scent that it's Amy's beret I'm still wearing.

" Well Amy was being annoying, so I stole her beret and was going to drop it in all the scyther guts and stuff, you know, to gross her out and make her go away" - I simplify that bit. - "But the moment we were alone, she started undressing..."

Latias does a face that looks like she's about to fire laser beams out of her eyes. Cubone does his species equivalent of a wolf-whistle, which equates to a long howling noise that makes just about everyone turn around.

"Sorry" He mumbles and the people turn back to their conversations.

I continue.

"So then she backed me against a wall, and tried to mate me BUT I turned invisible and flew away. After pushing her over and Bianca finding us"

Latias now looks so angry as to catch fire. I'm briefly concerned for my own safety, until she shrieks out even louder than Cubone.

"WHERE AMY? NOONE FORCES MY BROTHER TO DO ANYTHING!"

Neither me nor Cubone were expecting that, and Cubone topples off her back, landing on his back. He gets up unhurt as I try to calm Latias down.

"Calm down, I never said she actually did anything"

It's odd what Latias aura is projecting though. It's almost like she's feeling... Jealous? Envy? Why is she jealous of Amy?

I feel a blast of happiness because - if Latias sees this as Amy having intimate time with me - she could be jealous of the fact that Amy was bold enough to try and mate me and she hasn't! Which is FANTASTIC, because she'll definately accept me as her mate when I ask her when Lorenzo gets here!

Oh I so want to ask her now! But I need to wait for the whole family, Lorenzo included.

Latias has calmed down slightly, but I completely deflate her when I rub the end of my snout against the side of hers, which stops her being angry and makes her giggle.

"You two! Down here! Oi! Get a room!" Cubone shouts from underneath us.

Oh believe me Cubone. I'm working on it. I'm actually surprised he hasn't picked up on it yet, but he'll find out soon enough.

"I'm sleepy" Latias suddenly announces, before stopping levitating all together and falling to the ground, narrowly avoiding landing on Cubone.

She does a series of cute yapping noises, as she tucks her head under her right wing and rests the other on the ground, like she always sleeps when she's alone.

Cubone looks at me with a puzzled face. Then an awkward pause.

"Ohhh... I'm tired but I can't sleep." Latias coos from under her wing. We both watch her for a few seconds, unsure of what to actually do next. Do I help her fall asleep by lying next to her and keeping her safe with my wings like I normally do, or...?

I notice one of the girls running over and realize that it's Katie, probably wanting to battle. This probability is confirmed when she unclips a pokeball from her belt - while running - throws it in our general direction - while running - and calls out her Absol - while running. Katie is, by definition, 'noise that can run'.

"Absol, Come on out!". She still hasn't named her, then, and I don't see her ever naming the Absol now.

A red beam projects from the ball - No I don't know how it works - and casts itself onto the ground, forming the shape of an Absol and them materialising until the beam fades away and the Absol is there, in the flesh.

"Hey Latios!" she barks, the first thing she says when she comes out of the ball. I say barks. The only reason I think that is because she stands on four legs and she looks like the kind of pokemon that should bark. Her voice is actually quite soft, but there isn't any word to describe how it goes.

"Hey Absol!" I coo back, nodding to her instead of waving with a paw, which I've decided just looks gimmicky.

Absol trotts on over to Latias and sniffs her. I wouldn't let any pokemon I didn't know that close to Latias while she's sleeping, but I've known Absol for ages.

"What's up with her?"

"She's tired." - I whisper the next bit as Absol starts prodding Latias with her front right paw - "I think it's her heat".

Absol giggles and then howls loudly.

"LATIAS! I got you a cookie!". She does know how to wind her up. Latias loves cookies. Especially the made-for-pokemon ones. They're one for the few pokemon food she'll actually eat.

Instantly, Latias flies up off the ground and curves around to see Absol face to face. Absol's about half the size of Latias, but she stands on four legs, and is quite low to the ground. Latias is hovering so her snout is about a foot from Absol's, and she's only about two or three feet off the ground. As with all things Latias, she's not flying straight and her body is curved round and up in relation to her head.

"Hey, there's no cookie!"

"Yeah, and you weren't asleep. Evens" Absol narrows her eyes and does a petit growl to provoke Latias. Latias doesn't bite, literally and figuratively. Although she does growl back.

"What's it like in your ball anyway?" She asks, half because she wants to know, the other half because she knows that Absol hates being kept in it and she wants to wind her up.

"Oh it's not that bad. Plenty of room, air con, nice and cold... Say, how's that whole 'finding another one of your species' holding out?"

That's crossing the line, and I'm about to unleash some form of ironic attack, but Latias carries right on, employing the default female defense of 'smart but cutting remarks'. The thing is, it's Latias and she can't pull it off, because she can't actually say anything mean. And if she does, it's always in a joking manner, like now.

"I'm not looking for another Latias because I don't NEED one, I've got everything I need right here. I'm special. I'm LEGENDARY. Which is more than can be said for you. I don't ever remeber exiling myself on a mountain"

Katie butts in at this point, calling Absol to her side. Absol complies and does a graceful four legged turn before galloping off back to her trainer without passing another comment.

"That's right! Run off back to your master!" Latias shouts back, giggling the entire time, before hovering back up to chest height alongside me.

"You going to thrash her?" She asks, looking up to me.

"As always" I look back down at her and we both smile.

Bianca comes running across and talks to Katie for a second, then looks down at Absol and gushes, before saying a few more words and running over to us.

"Okay, so Katie wants to battle - as always - but she wants me to actually tell you what to do this time. You know, to make it fairer" she tells me, and Latias makes a shocked kind of sound.

"Sure thing, Bianca!" I coo to her and rub her face to let her know I'll be good and listen to her. Even if (as Latias likes to shout when Bianca tells her to do something), 'you don't have enough badges to control me'. It's more about respect then badges, and I respect Bianca wholeheartedly.

Because it's Katie and all she thinks about IS battling procedure, she shouts across the clearing to me and Bianca. Bianca turns around and walks backwards so she's alongside me.

I look down to see where Cubone is and he's started hugging Bianca's leg. Aww.

"Bianca! I challenge you to a battle! My Absol vs your Latios!"

Bianca shouts back, not normally cocky but putting it on now because... Well, I don't know. But the other girls plus Jay and Tony have now turned around, alerted by the shouting, and are starting to walk around the clearing so they can get a better view of the battle area.

"Bring it on, Katie! What is it now, like, five-nil?"

While the two of them exchange banter, Tony walks into the centre, and both Bianca and Katie accept him as the umpire. Some people call it an umpire, some, a referee, and the bizzare ones call them arbiters. But either way, he's the oldest here and most experienced, so none of us are suprised he's judging the battle.

The girls fall silent and Tony speaks up. He sounds quieter than the two girls were, but he's three times their age, so I let it slide.

"This battle will be between Latios and Absol. The winner will be the pokemon not fainted at the end of the bout. The bout ends when one pokemon is fainted. Latios will be following the orders of Bianca, and Absol those of Katie.". He raises both his arms to point at me and Absol, the universal symbol for "get ready".

He takes a walk backwards so he's at the edge of the battle, then drops his arms and shouts for the start of the match.

"You may begin!"

Bianca points her finger at Absol and tells me to "GO", so I fly out and into the centre of the arena, and Absol does the same. I'm silent, but Absol's movement is accompanied by a quiet galloping noise.

While Bianca is, I don't know, choosing what nail polish to wear, Katie races ahead in the battle order and has already ordered Absol's first attack.

"Absol, Ice beam, now!" She shouts.

Absol complies, and in seconds there's a chilly beam of everything cold heading right for me from Absol's mouth.

"Latios, Dodge!". Thanks for that, Bianca, I'd have never figured out I'd have to that. Sarcasm fully intended.

I strafe to the right and upwards, and the beam zipps past me. Absol tries changing the direction of the beam, but I rotate round so I'm at a better angle for flying around her, and fly slow loops around her, getting gradually higher.

Absol is four legged, and - graceful as she is - she can't do a smooth turn, she has to gallop sideways to avoid tripping over her own feet. Paws. Whatever she wants to call them. So the attack is being pointed around in jerky movements, until, finally, Absol tires of the attack and stops.

"Now Absol! Icy Wind!" Katy shouts while pointing at me again.

It occurs to me - not for the first time - that an Absol should be quite a good opponent, perhaps even a threatening adversely. They know ice type moves and are - at core - a dark types. Which are the two weaknesses of psychic/dragon types such as myself. Which is why Katie is choosing them.

"Oh, Erm.. . Er.. Oh..." instead of actually providing some useful advice, Bianca just stands there and 'umms'. Not helpful.

Absol, meanwhile, has already started the attack, and it races towards me like... Well, an icy wind. Powered by a tornado. That was shot from a cannon.

With no orders from Bianca, I just float there and take what feels like the brunt of a frozen wasteland. It's just so... Cold. Too cold to even think of something its as cold as.

"BIANCA? COMMAND?" I shout at her through my teeth, because so far she's been useless and this really hurts quite a lot.

I can barely her Latias squealing because I've pulled my ears back over my head to try and keep them warm. But she is squealing quite loudly, clearly distressed at seeing me have to take this attack.

Suddenly, it stops, and I'm no longer being bombarded with what felt like a thousand icy needles.

I unfold my ears from behind my head, just in time to hear Bianca's command.

"Er... Latios! Arial ace!". Meh, it's a good choice.

Pausing only to shake off the ice that was starting to collect on my wings, I shoot off upwards, putting my ears back again to streamline myself. I was at tree height when the icy wind hit me, but in seconds I fly up to five times that height. Which should be plenty high enough.

At the apogee, I do a curve so I'm facing downwards, also running through the mental checklist that sets up the perfect conditions for free-falling really fast.

Ears back, wings almost flat, pointed back slightly, arms in, neck straight, tail fins flat...

I complete the curve in the air and (with a roll for display), I start to face downwards, Absol and her trainer coming into view.

Both are looking directly up at me, awe in Katies face, confusion in Absol's. Absol has never seen me do this attack before, so she'll be expecting some kind of swooping dragon attack or something.

Nope, just raw power in this one. Sorry.

She gets down on her front paws, alert, ready to dodge or fire off some other kind of attack. But by the time she figures out what is going on, it'll be too late. She's trying to intimidate me by barring her teeth, but it's not really that effective. She's about eight times smaller than me.

I start free-falling, slow at first, but picking up speed as I alter my wings tiny amounts to hone in on the target, Absol's back, which is getting bigger and bigger as I get closer and closer, faster and faster.

I get to about 8 meters up, alter my wings one last time so I'll definitely hit the target, then add the extra psychic kick to the downwards motion for that extra bit of speed with makes this an arial ace.

Part of Arial Ace's power is that no one expects the last bit to happen so quickly, so even if the pokemon was planning on dodging, they don't have time to by the time they've realised that I've changed speed and become a lot, lot faster.

The extra psychic kick I put in makes me complete the last part of the fall in a quater of the time the initial fall did, even though that was double the distance.

Absol doesn't even have time to think, and neither does anyone else in the crowd, as I slam into her back, tilting my head at the last minute so I hit her with the top of my skull and not my snout.

The disadvantage of Arial Ace is that it's difficult to retreat after the attack if your head is lodged in your opponent's back.

The moment I stop moving downwards, I fly back and away, to get out of range of any counter attack, but Absol isn't moving. Down for the count.

Tony and Katie both eagerly watch for any movement. Aside from her chest slowly rising and falling, though, Absol stays on the floor. Fainted.

"Absol is unable to battle. Latios wins!" Tony announces after a tense few seconds.

Since everyone expected that result, absolutely no one cheers in celebration. The closest Bianca gets to celebration is half-heartedly putting her hand in the air and giving the world's most pitiful and sarcastic 'Whoopee.'

It's expected really. That battle was over the moment it started. Wild legendary vs captured Absol. No brainer who's winning.

While everyone is being sarcastic about how they '^totally^ didn't expect that result', Katy runs over to Absol and pulls out various battle items from a satchel, clearly upset.

I feel kind of bad, since she's upset because of something I did. So to prevent myself from being the creul and unforgiving force of nature I like to consider myself, I fly back down to Absol and try to nudge her awake.

"Absol?" I poke under her chin with my snout. No response.

"Absol?" I try again. Still nothing.

"Wake up? Katie's got medicine?" I poke her with my snout one last time, and Absol makes a weak mewing sound.

"ABSOL! ABSOL! You're awake?"

The same mewing sound.

Katy puts her hand on my wing and pushes me away. "Thanks Latios, but can I just give her her medicine?"

To reiterate, she shakes a bottle filled with tablets, which makes a rattling sound. I back off, as Katie knows a lot more about medicine than me, after all. Especially how to give it to her fainted Absol.

I watch as she takes one capsule from the bottle, delicately opening Absol's mouth with the other hand, and - carefully, to avoid Absol's two pointy teeth - putting the tablet in, before gently manipulating her jaw shut, also tipping Absol's entire head back manually, making her swallow the medicine.

It's a refined procedure, and Absol doesn't resist or anything, which is definately something I wouldn't be able to do. If Lorenzo has to give us medicine, it involves hiding it in our food, which doesn't work because we can smell it a mile off and we just eat around it. Which is when he resorts to force, which also doesn't work, because he's 70 years old and can't fly, psychic or turn invisible. Then it's bribery, which does work.

"Thanks" Absol mews, before closing her eyes for an extended nap. Katie trusses Absol's mane once, an affectionate gesture, before getting up and walking to the group, who have recollected around the table, leaving Absol to rest.

I follow Katie back to the table where the rest of the girls have gone. When she gets there the first person she talks to is Bianca, to let her know no hard feelings.

"Bianca? Yeah, good battle. We'll beat you one day" Katie says with a mischievous grin as I float to Bianca's side.

"You can try. Is she..?" Bianca is nodding in Absol's direction, who is that current moment in time being pestered by Latias, probably to get up and play.

Katie giggles at the sight and responds to Bianca. "She's fine. I've given her a full restore. She'll be up and jumping around in no time."

"Ahh good." There's a silence before the next thing happens.

Bianca produces something from her pocket, and gives it to Katie with a nod like the item she's given her should mean something.

Katie just gives Bianca a confused look.

"Bianca... Why have you given me a bouncy ball?". I know exactly why she's done it then moment I see what ball she's given her. Bianca grins an evil grin.

"LATIAS! LOOK WHO'S GOT YOUR BALL!" Bianca shouts to Latias, pointing at the ball she just handed to Katie.

Latias looks up immidiatly as Bianca steps away from Katie, who has her hand open and in it, Latias' favourite toy.

It's not an ordinary bouncy ball. That wouldn't be interesting at all. No, this ball has got random raised areas and jutty-out bits. This means that when the ball collides with something - say the ground or a tree - it'll bounce off in a completely random direction, even back at the thrower sometimes. It reminds me a lot like Latias herself. Erratic, unpredictable, very energetic...

The ball is actually ment to be MY plaything, because it's blue and has a red triangle on, like me. Latias has one exactly like it, just red, but there are some things of mine which she finds so entertaining that it'd be wrong to wrestle it off her like I do with other things. So I entertain myself with the spectacle that unfolds before me...

* * *

I suppose one of the good things about living in a place that is a tourist heaven because of you is that you can probably buy anything with your likeness on it. Or in their case, the red/blue triangle on a blue/red background.

Wound up the 2nd beta engine for project Latios. Good news, thrust is 600 grams. Bad news, it broke the testing stand, cut my head open and smashed against the ceiling :/. If anyone has an effective way to clean WD40, engine oil and blood from a timber wood surface, make yourself known.

YOUR AUTHERS NEED YOU! *painted finger pointing at reader*  
READ, AND REVIEW!


	31. Chapter 31: Ball

Interesting skitty fact:  
Because of Japanese population density issues and an overzelous government campaign to eliminate strays, children in Japan rarely see a domesticated cat in real life. In fact, more family's own a skitty plush than a real cat. The ratio is almost the same as the reversed Germany statistic on cat/skitty ownership.

Also, as you go will no doubt see, the plural of Absol is Absol (verified by a Newcastle University English Professor) . If a sentence doesn't seem to make sense, try looking at 'Absol' as a plural. I. E "look Absol! a pack of Absol!"

* * *

"THE BALL!". Latias squeals at the top of her voice, eyes locking on to the toy that a confused Katie is now holding.

Latias flies up to head height while accelerating as quickly as possible towards her. Much to Katie's distress.

Katie squeals when she realizes that Latias is after the ball and - after a brief pause to consider whether to protect her face with her hands or throw the ball - she does the latter, weakly throwing the ball directly at Latias in a bid to stop her from ploughing into her.

"I GOT IT I GOT IT I GOT IT!" Latias shouts out as the ball goes racing towards her. She shifts her head slightly, nabbs it out of the air, and carries on towards Katie. Now she's thrown it, she's going to have to do it again, but only after petting Latias so that she'll let go of the ball.

Katie sees that giving Latias the ball hasn't actually made her slow down. She raises one knee and bunches her arms near her face in defense, clearly thinking that Latias is planning to collide with her anyway.

In the last meter, Latias slows down until she gently bumps into Katie's elbow.

"I got the ball Katie!" she announces, though her mouth is full and it doesn't sound quite right. Katie carefully removes one arm away from her face.

"Oh... Er... Okay... Bianca?" Katie umms and arrs, clearly confused about what to do now Latias is hovering infront of her, ball in mouth and playful look in her eyes. Considering she was trying to sleep not twenty minutes ago, it's a bit lively.

"Thow the ball for her. Make sure you bounce it though" Bianca tells her, smirking at her discomfort of nearly being bowled over by the excited Latias.

"Oooooh... Kay...?". Katie looks at Latias and, after a brief hesitation, raises her other hand up to Latias' mouth to try and take the ball.

Latias - like me - has small, but very pointy teeth. So I can understand why Katie is hesitant to just 'take' the ball. But after a second, she reaches forward and tries taking the ball from Latias. Which Latias doesn't approve of.

"No! No! Tell me how good a catch it was!" Latias growls at her, but it's not a threatening growl, it's more playful than threatening. The ball stays in her mouth, despite Katie's tugging.

Katie lets go after realizing that she isn't going to get the ball that way, and looks at Bianca for assistance.

"You've got to give her a scratch behind the ears before she lets go..."

"Huh. Fussy isn't she... " Katie mumbles under her breath as I fly on over to join in.

Katie raises a hand and gives Latias a rather weak scratch behind the ears, which makes her coo loudly and happily. Katie makes an Aww noise at this sight and after a few more seconds grabs for the ball again with her other hand. This time Latias lets go and the ball ends up in Katies hand.

The moment Katie stops scratching her, Latias starts harassing her to throw the ball again, flying around Katie's head and diving for the hand with the ball in.

"THROW THE BALL ALREADY! COME ON! JUST THROW IT! MAKE IT BOUNCE! THROW. IT. THE BALL. THROW IT! WHAT IS TAKING YOU SO LONG, DO I HAVE TO DO IT MYSELF NOW? UGH, HUMANS, REALLY, I MEAN, I KNOW..." The shouting continues until Katie puts her arm back, at which point Latias stops shouting, but still tries to take the ball out of Katie's hand.

With a rapid arm movement, Katie swings the ball forwards and lets go late on, making it fly towards the ground about 2 meters infront of her

Latias immediately goes after it, turning around Katie and matching the ball's speed. She could go faster, but she wants to see what happens when it hits the ground, and so she stays just behind it. I watch with Katie as Latias chases the ball.

Said ball hits the ground and immediately ricochets off to the left, the random lumps on the surface making the ball bounce in a highly unlikely direction.

Latias immediately sets off after it, laughing at the randomness of the movement. Katie also laughs at Latias laughing, because - put simply - laughing at a ball is a very simple minded thing to laugh at.

Meanwhile, Latias continues to follow the ball as it arcs back up in the air, adjusting her wings slightly so the air flow over them pushes her in the right direction. It reaches the peak of its curve, then fall back down, then hitting the floor and bouncing to the right. At that point, Latias quickly jumps to the side and nabs the ball out of the air, shaking her head once she's got it.

Content with the fact that the ball is definitely dead, Bianca, me and Katie were all expecting Latias to fly back to Katie for her to throw it again. So its a surprise to all of us when she turns half a circle and flies over to Absol, who is still lying on her side. I fly over to her as Latias tries talking to the sleeping Absol.

"Absol! Look at my ball!"

Absol, being asleep, doesn't respond.

"ABSOL! MY BALL! LOOK!"

No response, and Latias voice is slurred anyway from the ball in her mouth. I think I need to intervene before Absol wakes up and decides to scare Latias off, which is what I'd do. Not that I'd approve of anyone else doing it.

"Latias. Absol is asleep. Perhaps you weren't looking, but I fell on her. Give her a break."

Latias seems resilient to accept this.

"No, she's awake. She just doesn't want to get up."

"No Latias, she's sleeping. Let her have her medicine. I'll play with you instead?"

That makes her stop nagging Absol at least.

"Really? Cool! Fetch!"

She raises her head and spits the ball out, and it flies into the ground. Unfortunately for her and her dignity, the ball hits the ground on one of the random bumps, and it flies right back at her. Even more embarrassing, I've already started chasing the ball, and so when the ball hits her in the neck, I do too, barreling into her.

"Ahhhh! Where's the ball?" She squeals as we both collapse to the floor, the ball ending up somewhere underneath the two of us. Latias immediately starts scrapping around for the ball with her snout, but she can't fly anywhere because her wing under me has her pinned down, and I can't move at all because my wing is pinned pushed up against hers, and I can't move it any lower of my own accord. In the background, I can hear Bianca's and Katie both burst out laughing and Cubone has waddled up and is now poking my neck with his bone.

"Latios, get up. Get up. Get up. Hey Latios? Get up." He's doing it deliberately to annoy me, and I growl to get him to stop, as Latias tries to worm her way out from under me, her wing hitting me in the neck in the process.

"Prod me again, I dare you. You'll be breakfast." I glower at him and he looks like he's laughing. I didn't mean the breakfast thing, but it'd be nice to have him believe it and stop poking me.

Of course, he had to go an jab me one more time, just because I told him not to.

I try and psychic up, but me and Latias have found ourselves in a rare but annoying situation.

My wing is stuck under Latias, and her wing is stuck under me. We're both facing opposite directions, and Latias' flippers are flapping centimeters from my snout. Since neither of us can lower our wings anymore, we can't separate because the fragile miniature triangles that extend from the back of our wings are stopping us from flying apart. We're effectively knotted, which has Cubone in stitches as I psychic no more than a foot off the ground, before Latias tries to fly away in the opposite direction, and pulls me back down.

Far off, I can hear Bianca shriek as she realizes our situation. But it's not as audible as Latias shouting.

"Ahh! We're stuck! Ah! LATIOS STAY STILL!"

"No! You stay still! Bianca's coming to help"

"BIANCA! LATIOS HIT ME!".

She moves the rear flipper closest to me and it slaps me across the snout.

"YOU HIT ME!" I growl back, nipping her flipper for revenge.

"HEY!" She growls back even louder and hits me again.

Cubone has tactfully decided to retreat back to Absol as Bianca stomps over and tries to get Latias to behave.

"Oi! You two! Stop! Just... STOP! YOU'RE... ARRRHHHHH!" She waves her hands around in an attempt to get our attention, but it's not working. Latias is now headbutting my tail fins, and I keep having to bite then every time hers get too close. Both of us are growling at each other and Bianca can't get a word in.

In the end, Bianca gives up and dives in too, pulling at Latias' wing and my neck in an effort to get our attention and separate us at the same time.

You'd think that a human getting involved with two fighting dragons would be the thing only fools would do, and it would end in her being badly scratched, but Bianca knows us too well to actually get anywhere where we could damage her.

All the same, shouts of "Are you crazy?" and "No!" ring out from her friends.

Bianca, on the other hand, don't seem to care and keeps on shouting at us. "IF YOU TWO DON'T STOP GROWLING I'LL TAKE THE BALL AND GIVE IT TO A LESS FORTUNATE POKEMON THAN YOU TWO"

The issue here is that that might not be a hollow threat. On one hand, it's one of Latias' favorite toys, and she'd be devastated if she ever lost it. On the other hand, Bianca is a charitable person, and she probably would give it away. Then again, we could just eat the pokemon she gave it to. Then again again, Bianca knows how much it means to Latias and would never give it away in the first place. Right?

Latias doesn't want to run that risk though, and stops growling, smacking and headbutting me. Because she's stopped hitting me, her tail fins are out of reach, and I also stop biting her. All suddenly becomes very quiet.

Cubone decides its safe and plods back on over to us, before going behind me and leaning over my neck. I can't see what he's doing, but a few seconds later, all is revealed.

He takes something from in-between me and Latias and then wanders back around to Absol with it, before sitting down next to her head and bouncing the object from a low height, mildly amused.

The object is the ball, which he has retrieved with relative ease thanks to his much more agile paw.

I'm about to growl at him until I remember Bianca's threat, so I just make do with a threatening glare. He negates it by just not looking at me and instead concentrating on the ball.

Bianca, meanwhile, has crouched down and assessed the situation. I can feel Latias moving her neck around to follow Bianca, ignoring Bianca's requests to "stay still" or "move your wing forwards" while she fiddles with my wing. I know she's got to pull it further down than I can with my own muscles, and it's not painful. But it's out of my movement range and so I can't do it. And Bianca could do it, except that Latias is - not for the first time - not staying still long enough.

"Could someone else come and help? They're stuck, and it's a two person job. Someone needs to hold Latias' wing"

I'm facing the food table and surrounding girls, so I can see the absence of volunteers. Not surprising considering we were growling and biting not two seconds ago.

"Come on! They don't bite! Well they do, but they don't bite people!" Bianca shouts in an effort to persuade. But still no one steps forward.

While I'm flattered that they're scared of me, Latias sitting on my wing is now beginning to make it go numb, which is really uncomfortable.

Eventually, after a second or two, Grace calls the rest of the group "wimps", steps forward from the crowd and walks over to our aid.

Let me describe Grace for you. She's big. Not just tall. Big. Wide. Excelling in the width department. These are all things you could call her, but wouldn't because she'd belly bounce you, and being hit by something that heaving would be lethal.

"Thanks Pedro" - Pedro? Really? Her name is Grace. I'm sure. - "You stand next to Latias and hold her wing, I'll pull Latios', because he doesn't like other people touching him"

This is true, and grace walks... Actually, not walks. Wobbles. Yeah.

This is true, and grace wobbles past me towards Latias. Really, I don't want her to touch Latias either. The grease from whatever food she had last - which smells like a cheese and meat burger - will take forever to wash off, and Latias spends forever making her down as neat and clean as possible. Then again, she IS helping us, which I guess I should be thankful for. I guess. And I suppose if there was one person there capable of holding Latias back that WASN'T Bianca, Grace would be the one. Because she's the heaviest.

Since I can't turn to face the pair of them because of Latias' posterior, I can feel but not see the two of them try to seperate us, Bianca talking and I assume gesturing on what Grace needs to do.

"No, hold that bit. On Latias. Yeah, the red one, yeah. That bit. Mind the small triangles, she likes those. Plus they're very sensitive. Okay Latias?"

"Really? Can't you hold me? Grace doesn't know what she's doing!"

Somewhere in Bianca's mind, this equates to 'Sure thing, go right ahead' and she asks me if I'm okay.

"You ready Latios?"

"Yep!" I coo back, my wing now totally dead from being pressed against Latias.

"3... 2... 1..." Bianca counts down, and when she finishes, tugs my wing down. All that's needed now is for Latias to be lifted up and we can fly apart.

That plan goes surprisingly well when Latias cries out in pain and I whirl around to see what's hurting her.

"Ow! Owwww! Ahhhhhhh!" Latias wails, and it doesn't even occur to me that I am now free as I fly up and around to see why.

Grace has her teeth clenched and is holding Latias wing down with way more force than she needs to. And it's hurting her. And no one hurts my sister. Ever.

I charge at her, fully intent on stopping her by as much force as possible, but Bianca cries out and I restrain myself at the last second.

"LATIOS! STOP!"

At the same time, Grace also lets go of Latias' wing, and she immediately flies away and behind me the moment she's free.

I bar my teeth and growl at Grace, unsure of whether to swipe her open with my claws, or just butt her into that tree. But Bianca stops both of those ideas by covering my snout with her hand.

It's effective as control goes. I can still see grace, but I can only smell Bianca, and the smell always reminds me not to hit her. Or anything that she likes. Fat Grace included.

"Calm down Latios. She was just helping."

It's to my own delight that I can see that Graces expression is petrified. I must be scary to her. I'm bigger, have pointer teeth, my ears are all the way up, my wings are back and I'm staring with my best intimidating face.

"Latios... Chill. Look, Latias is fine, see?"

She uses the hand clamped over my snout to draw my attention to Latias, who as flown from behind my back and is now trying to grab the ball off Cubone. He's moving it out of her way every time she makes a grab for it though, taunting her. But she's smiling and giggling, so I guess she's okay.

I relax. I'm still not happy with her hurting Latias in the first place, but it's hard to stay angry when Bianca's scent is the only thing I can smell.

"Good boy. Now apologize" she orders, and I guess I have to, even if I don't want to touch her with my feathers. Then again, her cheeks don't look that greasy. I hesitate when Bianca removes her hand and the word of smell returns, but in the end if I don't apologize, she'll only end up disciplining me.

With some discomfort, I rub my head against Grace's, and she thanks me in return.

"Sorry for hurting Latias. I didn't mean it."

The moment she finishes her sentence, I stop thanking her and fly over to Latias, who has still not managed to get the ball.

"Are you okay?" I shout to Latias, and she turns her ears in my direction.

"I'm okay! But Cubone won't give me the ball!"

I look down at Cubone as Latias makes another failed dive to retrieve the ball.

"I'd give it her if I were you. She's in heat, aft-" my sentence is interrupted by a loud and annoying entity crashing through the trees.

"Yo people! JAY-Z IS IN DA HOUSE!"

Kill it. Kill it with fire. Because, of course, something this annoying can only be Jay. And his mere existence on the same dimensional plane as me is an insult.

"Well, garden. Jay-z is in the garden" He mumbles to no one in particular as he bounces over to Bianca, who had just finished assisting grace over to the table.

I shoot her a look that says "You invited him?", but she ignores it and opts to run and jump up to hug Jay around the neck. Just a little tighter and she'll do us all a favor and strangle him. Unfortunately, she doesn't, and lets go, taking his hand in hers and standing at his side.

I know why she's doing it, the hand holding that is. I've seen enough human dramas to know what the result of multiple partner relationships is. So she's doing it to let all the other girls know that Jay is taken.

I consider going over there and breaking up the hand-holding, because there's no need for it, after all. But it seems Jay's loud shouting has woken Absol, because she twitches on the ground before opening her eyes.

"Really? What's with all the noise? You never got any of this on mount silver."  
She glances at Cubone, Latias, and me in sequence.

"Oh..."

After stretching, she rolls over so her paws are on the ground and then makes her legs straight, standing up.

"Well, that was a nice rest at least. Who's that?" She looks at Jay, standing in mid-stride and sniffing the air in his direction.

I'm about to tell her that it's Bianca's prospective mate, but she's already galloped over to him, sniffing around his ankles. And because Jay is an idiot, he forgets that Absol aren't generally friendly towards humans by default, and leans down to pet her.

"Awwww aren't you the furryist thing ever?" He says to Absol, moving his hand to tickle her under the chin.

Me and Latias like being tickled under the chin. But only by Bianca. If Jay tried it without asking Bianca, I'd bite his hand off. So it comes with great glee that Absol rears back and bites his finger the moment it touches him.

"AHHHHHHHHH... WHAT THE FFFFFFFFF... AHHHH THAT STINGS!" Jay shouts at the top of his voice pulling his finger away from her and grabbing it with his other hand, while Absol gallops back to us, wearing a scornful expression. Jay meanwhile is clutching his finger as Bianca tries to examine it and Katie fumbles with her belt to try and get Absol's pokeball. The rest of the girls are laughing at Jay's expense.

Absol slows down and trotts back over to us, me and Latias floating horizontally side by side, a look of admiration on both our faces. Cubone looks like he's debating whether to ask Absol for a ride. I can never quite tell what he's thinking from how he looks, the skull helmet always makes it difficult to guess.

"I don't like him." Absol says with distaste as she reaches us and glances back to look at the havock she's caused.

"Who is he anyway?"

Latias answers, always to be first to spread gossip.

"That's Bianca's mate. We don't like him either"

Absols ears twitch.

"What? Actual mate orrrr...?"

"Prospect. Latios caught them close the other day, but she knows the rules now. Speaking of rules, you fancy breaking some? That fish looks delicious and I'm starving" Latias gazes over to the table where the girls and jay are now stood, all looking at Jay's finger. As distractions go, injury is a good one. But Latias is too obvious, and she'll never sneak any. Absol doesn't seem keen either.

"Er... I'll pass. Don't like fish that much" - Latias flies back shocked, like not liking fish is some kind of horrendous disorder - "Although that Cubone looks nice and meaty". She glowers down at him and he immediately runs behind Latias, grabbing ahold of her tail feathers for protection. Not suprising really, Absol is about half a foot taller than him when she's stood on four paws.

It's an honest observation, but I don't like the way she said it. It sounded like she was a bit too serious when she considering eating him. As complicated as human friendships are, I don't think Bianca has ever worried that one of her friends will eat another. Except perhaps grace, who looks like she's already eaten Amy, as she's thankfully nowhere to be found.

Absol carries on, perhaps detecting my distaste in her appetite for Cubone.

"And anyway, I think the master is trying to return me for biting Bianca's mate."

She glances over her shoulder and I see what she means. Katie is running - again - with a pokeball that I presume is Absol's in her hand. Absol doesn't seem to really care about her impending incarceration, as Katie presses a button, making the ball enlarge from pocket-size to fist-size.

"Absol, Don't Bite! Return!" Katie screams, lobbing the ball in Absol's vicinity.

Absol explains her lack of concern.

"Wrong pokeball. Always is."

As if to emphasize this, the ball bounces against her rump - making her jolt - and onto the floor.

Before Katie can curse, a red light fans out of the ball and materializes a pokemon next to Absol.

Me and Latias recognize the smell before it becomes visible.

"FEBAS!" Both me and her cry simultaneously, diving for the newly spawned pokemon.

It smells so good. The pokemart should store food in pokeball more often if it keeps it this fresh. Then again, you don't get fresher than 'ALIVE'.

Mine and Latias' soon-to-be-meal is interrupted by Absol, as Katie cries out.

"Don't eat Feebie!" the two both cry, as Absol gallops in-front and essentially smothers the Febass with her underside, protecting it from me and Latias with her back. Which me and Latias both run into, surprised.

"FLUFFY!?" Latias squeals as she bounces off Absol's thick white coat. I opt to carry on trying to get to the fish, but I stop when Absol growls at me, harsher than I've heard her before. I remove my snout from her coat and she tones down the growling, but doesn't stop glaring at me or Latias until Katie comes over and strokes her mane. When she does, she looks up at Katie, before standing up and allowing her access to the pokemon.

"Thanks" Katie grumbles as she shoots me and Latias a withering look. Bianca shouts to our defense, but the distance somewhat dents the impact it has.

"Hey, they're still wild Katie! Perhaps you should stop throwing food at them? And stop your's from biting my boyfriend!"

Luckily, Absol isn't one to hold a grudge, and the moment the fish is back in the ball, she turns around to look at us, not angry so much as slightly irritated.

"Please don't eat my friends? I won't eat Cubone."

Meh. Fair deal. Although why she's friends with a fish I don't know. If I recall, Absol don't like swimming.

"Good. And okay." Latias responds ahead of me. Katie shouts to Absol as she walks back to the girly crowd.

"You can stay out for now, since you saved feebie. But DON'T bite anyone else"

Absol just grunts.

"I don't like him. He's bad news. I can just tell."

Well, Absol is the 'disaster' pokemon, but this prediction comes a bit late. We know Jay is a disaster. That's why we try to avoid him. I try to change the subject.

"How did you end up with Katie anyway?". Latias nods in agreement. It's not often pokemon disagree with trainers, but Absol did there with no quarrel at all. So clearly there's something interesting there.

"Well... " - she pauses, before shuffling her front paws and continuing - " I was originally her grandfather's. He was a mountain climber, and caught me on his second to last climb. Two days after his last one, he had a heart attack and died. I knew it was going to happen, and I tried to warn Katie's dad, his son, but he didn't understand. I couldn't really face him after that, so I defected to his daughter, Katie. She's okay, I guess. But as you can probably guess, I'm not a human favorite and this isn't really my climate, so she keeps me in the ball a lot..."

Well that last bit certainly is true. To humans, Absol only generally appear when something bad is going to happen. Unfortunately for Absol, the humans thought this meant that they (the Absol) were the cause of the accidents. When they were actually trying to warn them. That myth was dispelled years ago, but some people are still superstitious and claim that seeing an Absol gives you bad luck. And so someone walking through Alto Mare with one runs the risk of being outcast or insulted.

And Alto Mare isn't exactly a great place for her either. Each of her paws have three thick claws extending out of them, clearly for gripping, and her thick white fur is great camouflage and would keep her warm in the snow. But this is Alto Mare, and there is hardly ever snow, or slippy surfaces. So she sticks out really badly, and her fur probably makes her overheat a lot. Plus it's really flat and mostly stone surfaces, so her grippy claws aren't much use.

"Oh. That's sad." Latias coos in a disappointed voice. I agree, it is quite sad.

"Well, it's not that bad. And winter here is quite good really."

"What? No! Winter's horrible!" Latias objects. Dragon types do not like the cold, and it's mine and Latias' least favorite time of the year. It's cold, it's damp, All the good pokemon are hibernating and you never can find any to eat, the canals are frozen so you can't swim, the grass is covered by snow and it's never comfortable to sleep outside.

"Nahh, winter's awesome. I blend in, it's easier to walk, it's not too warm, and there's loads of snow to play in!"

Absol doesn't strike me as a playful Pokemon like one that would 'enjoy' snow or 'play' in it, but I guess that's just because we've never seen her in an ideal habitat, which probably changes her mood a lot.

As for us, well. Me and Latias particularly dislike snow. It's like whatever controls the weather was actually looking for a way to make being a dragon difficult. And they managed to put it in a physical form. Snow. If you're sleeping outside and it snows during the night, you could wake up under three feet of the stuff, with no idea which way is up. And you can't smell anything, because the stupid flakes have gone inside your snout. Cold, damp and lost is never a situation that you want to start your day in.

Absol must be reading my mind - though she doesn't have the ability to - because she starts saying how great sleeping in snow is.

"Oh, and sleeping in snow! That's cool. When it's winter, Katie lets me out to sleep outside. Because everything's white, I can sleep and nothing will attack me because I blend in!"

Me and Latias don't have that problem, because one, we're at the top of the food chain and two, barely any pokemon that we aren't friends with come in the garden. So blending in isn't really something we prioritize. Especially when we can turn invisible.

"I hate snow. It gets in my ears." Is the only thing Latias has to say on that subject.

There's a disturbance at the food table and all four of us turn to look at it. Bianca is holding the doorbell-phone-thing and hushing everyone. Once everyone is quieter, she presses two buttons on the thing and answers, holding the phone out in her palm like when she's feeding us something.

A voice comes out of the thing and Latias recognizes it immediately, I can tell by how she pricks her ears up and lifts her head.

"Hello?"

I don't recognize it at first, but when I do I'm surprised. It's Lorenzo, about two hours early.

* * *

Sorry for the poor chapter, I just wasn't sure how to write down some stuff and this affected my concentration somewhat.

**Please read and review!**

Attachment with Boeing was good. Saw a lot of stuff I can't tell you about and a lot of cool stuff I can. Like the fully immersive, HD 3D, Full surround, training cinema. After Project Latios, I think my next aim will be to buy a studio and build one of these rooms, and recreate the pokemon films in full immersion. Then sell tickets to experience it solo, first hand. It literally blows the socks of any cinema, television or computer game there is now.

Another cool thing I saw was a jet cutter that could cut 2 meter thick steel with jets of water travelling at mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). Though that's all I can say about that one, the rest is classified. :|

Speaking of project Latios, now I've got parts, project Latios is entering full swing. I've got Balsa from Britain, a Gyro from Germany, Chargers from China, Ferrite rings from France and an Arduino from Australia. The beta wings are starting to take shape, but need testing to see if they can carry 2kilos. I've also added D12 Rocket thrusters to the plans for that extra boost, though the paperwork for even domestic rocket engines is now getting ridiculous. I must say, it's getting pretty exciting. The trailer is also ready to be uploaded, and I've put up the engine test results on an infographic in my deviantart if you're interested in that kind of thing.


	32. Chapter 32: Distraction

The train I take always has Asians waiting for it, and it's always late. It's funny because the Japanese transport system hardly ever fails, and the British one does the moment it snows. I feel sorry for the conductor trying to tell them that a train is "cancelled" and that there's "No alternative service for now". It's like watching a hamster try to understand the letter green: the Japanese don't understand the term 'cancelled' in relation to transport.

"This is picture of train. I'm not for bus, I'm for train" - the poor Asian guy who was confused about why his train ticket was putting him on the replacement bus service.

* * *

"Oh hi gramps!" Bianca shouts at the phone, desperately thinking how to deal with his early arrival. And explain why Tony is in the kitchen.

"Are you in the garden?"

"Yeah, I was just feeding the twins" That's her name for us. And she's lying, she's not fed us all day. We got our own food.

"Ahh. I forgot my key. Could you let me in please?"

"Gradpa, really? Sure. I'll be right there" She presses a button on the phone and waits a few seconds before pointing at me and Latias. We'd both drifted closer during the 5 second call, so she doesn't need to shout for us to hear her. But she still does.

"You two, go and stall Lorenzo. Act up like you haven't been fed or something. We'll go and find Tony, he said he was going to explore the garden, and get everything perfect here. Give us ten minutes and then lead him through to here, and we'll suprise him."

I'm not suprised that Tony has wandered off, he loves the garden. I think a part of him wishes he lived here so he could paint... Well, frost... Some of the things here. As for delaying Lorenzo, that's no problem. Latias is great at making problems out of issues that don't exist. I give a brief jod to Bianca and set off, and for once Latias follows me.

As a parting message, Bianca gives us advice for when we bring Lorenzo here. "Shout when you get near or something!"

"Sure Thing!" I shout back to her, making it sound as positive as possible so she interprets it right.

Latias stays silent as we fly towards the archway, but as we reach there, that smell that I couldn't recognise but I knew was threatening returns. It's just as strong as last time, but it doesn't seem stronger in one place than another and so I can't tell what direction its coming from. And it's everywhere. The garden has gone from nice happy place to dangerous and threatening in a matter of seconds. I don't like this. One bit.

I stop as we fly over the lake, the safest place to stop, immediately making sure Latias is okay.

"Can you smell that?" I tilt me head and take a breath in.

Latias copies but doesn't look interested. "Smell what? You, Grass, Bianca, Jay, flowers, berries..? There's lots of smells. Why?"

I don't want to scare her, but at the same time she needs to know that something isn't right and she needs to be on guard.

"I can smell a threat". Latias ruffles her feathers to make herself look bigger as a response.

"What kind?"

"I can't remember. But it's bad."

Latias nervously looks around but doesn't do anything else. Aside from feather ruffling, she very rarely does any other kind of thing to look intimidating.

"Well then, the sooner we set off for Lorenzo, the sooner we can get away from it. I can't smell anything mean though... "

She's right, floating here won't scare it away, so we might as well go to Lorenzo. I nod at her and we both turn invisible to be on the safe side, then I set off through the archway, checking that Latias' aura is right behind me. The closer to the house we get, the weaker the smell gets, until we both emerge out from the archway, and the smell fades to nothing. So the threat was - or still is - in the secret garden.

I turn visible and a second later so does Latias, right next to me. She normally floats at the same height as me, but now she's looking up at me, slightly lower than what she normally is. It makes her look even smaller than me than she already is.

"Is it okay now?"

I nod at her then gesture towards the back door of the house, which is closed. . "Yep, I can't smell anything now. Females first."

Instead of going to the door, Latias flies over to the pile of paving slabs that conceals the Relincanth and starts moving the slabs wih her snout.

" What have you hidden here? It smells taste, what is it? Why haven't you had it yet? Can't w-" I interrupt her by snapping back a bit to hastily, flying around so I'm opposite her and pushing the top slab back with my snout so it covers the present.

"Leave it!" - one of Bianca's pet phrases when Latias chews on something she's not meant to - "It's for Lorenzo. It's his present for getting a new job. I'll give it him during lunch"

I'm a great liar. I know that humans don't like raw fish or dead pokemon as presents, but Latias insists they do. So from her eyes, what I'm doing makes perfect sense.

"Ooooohhhh" She coos disappointedly, upset the fish isn't hers. Little does she know...

She flies somewhat sadly over to the door, pulls the lever and pushes it open with her mouth, an easier task for her than me as her snout is smaller. She flies through with ease whereas I - again - bang my wing tips on the doorframe, making me yelp with suprise. Latias just laughs as she flies with ease to the front door.

"Come on fatso!". Huh. Funny. Not. She eats way more than me, especially when she's in heat.

I fly through the back door more successfully this time and through the kitchen, into the hallway. Latias is floating facing the door, but looking around at me.

"Remeber, Bianca said be annoying" She reminds me, before grabbing ahold of the door handle with her mouth and pulling it open.

The moment the door is open enough, I stick my head through for Lorenzo to pat, and generally making a lot of affectionate noises.

"Hi Lorenzo! How was the museum? Glad you're back!"

Our house is the only one on the corner of the canal, and has its own small wooden jetty, big enough for a gondola and one tow float like the one in the races. Lorenzo makes and captains his own gondola, he says in an effort to keep fit, which I'll admit works. The effort required to actually get those things moving has left him physically better off than if he didn't.

His boat (he's carved the name, 'The Cutler', on the stern) is tied up along the jetty, right next to Bianca's hand-painted float. Both boat and float are -naturally - adorned with carvings of me and Latias. Because we're the only house on the corner, No one will see my stick my head out of the door.

Lorenzo makes a deep chuckling noise and pats me on the head a few times just above my eyes as he walks in.

"Good to see you too! Where's your sister?"

"Behi- never mind" I say back as he closes the door behind him, revealing Latias, who promptly pounces on him.

"LORRRREENNNSOOOOO!" She squeals as she flies up to his head height and starts licking his cheek.

Lorenzo tolerates this for all of two seconds before pushing her away by putting a hand over her eyes and pushing her back.

"No no. Bianca has told me you've been fed, so you can stop that". He thinks we're being overly attentative because we want to be fed, which is normally the case when he gets home.

"But we LOOOVEEEEEE YOUUUUU!" Latias squeals loudly in response, totally over the top.

Lorenzo backs away from her to avoid further licking.

What I should point out here is also that our tounges are 'abrasive'. They've got tiny little spines on them, which Bianca says exist probably because it'll make cleaning ourselves more efficient. But it also means that to Lorenzo, Latias giving him a link on the cheek is like rubbing mild sandpaper over it. Damp, smelly, antibacterial, sandpaper.

I think it's time I tried delaying him. I do something I rarely do, and take my arms out from my sides.

"Lorenzo! Come with me! Look! Look! Here! Heel!" I fly towards the stairs and turn around when I get to the bottom, to see Lorenzo taking his boots off and Latias trying to 'help' him by yapping at the laces.

'Heel' is a word that Lorenzo says when he wants us to float by his side. I don't know why, because the heel is a part of a humans foot. Whatever the reason, I say it to tell him to walk by me. I'm going to take him upstairs and show him everything Latias has collected. That should easily waste ten minutes.

Lorenzo, meanwhile, still thinks we're nagging to be fed.

"NO! I've told you. Bianca's fed you your lunch. Dinner will be in a few - "

"NO SHE HASN'T! We fed ourselves!". I think Latias is taking the 'annoy Lorenzo' thing to a whole new level. As in 'Actually try and get more food'. Hey, I'm not complaining.

"Not so loud! Is Bianca coming? What are we thinking for lunch?" He asks us as he stands up, arms supporting his aging back.

Me and Latias both ignore this, and Latias starts nudging Lorenzo's shoulder towards me.

"Come on Lorenzo! Follow Latios! It's cool!"

Latias default reason to do anything when she doesn't have a reason is 'it's cool'. This has many a time led to something bad happening, like her flying into a window, or in one case, a boat.

"Okay okay, wow. Calm down girl. Let me just-"

"NOW! SEE IT NOW!" she squeals into his ear.

"Okay, I'll see it now. Just stop shouting!"

Lorenzo is the easiest pushover ever. Well, he is when me and Latias are involved.

I fly up the stairs and into mine and Latias' room, the one with the triangle wallpaper and the beanbags on the floor.

Around the room are the shelves with our stuff on. Latias has red shelves on one side of the room, I have blue ones on the other.

Most of the shelves are red, as Latias - by gender default - collects way more stuff than me.

"What is it you want to show me? It better not be a spider." Lorenzo's voice appears behind me, and my wings are blocking him from getting into the room, so I float aside.

Me and Latias both don't like spiders. When I see one, I make sure it doesn't get anywhere near Latias, because they look like something that could cause serious damage. They never actually HAVE, but all the same, better safe than sorry. They certainly look evil. Lorenzo doesn't seem to have a problem with them, on the other hand, so he always gets rid of them.

Lorenzo steps over the densely packed beanbags onto an area of solid floor and into the centre of the room. Latias flies in afterward, and immidiatly starts taking stuff off her shelves and giving them to Lorenzo. Not as gifts, but just for him to look at. Although the stuff were allowed to keep here is human-gift worthy, since it's neither dead nor unattractive. Or particularly attractive.

"Lorenzo! Look!" Latias takes a shiny silver thing that makes a cool rustling noise with her mouth and takes it over to Lorenzo, who is less than than impressed.

"It's a sweet wrapper, Latias. What about it?"

"LISTEN!" she moves the wrapper around with her mouth and it makes the rustling noise again. She looks delighted, Lorenzo looks... Unchanged.

"I don't... See.. Why do you like it? It's just a piece of rubbish."

While that may be true, it's one fancy piece of rubbish. All shiny and noisy. Definately not something to throw away.

Latias huffs and puts her trinket back on the shelf it came from, and I choose what I'm going to show Lorenzo.

My shelves are filled mostly with stuff Lorenzo and Bianca have got me, because all the stuff I've found has either been not shelf-worthy, or given to Latias as a present, because she loves that kind of thing.

As a result, my shelves have loads of plush than toys on them. They're made from material that's meant to be puncture proof, but you can still tell which pokemon I don't like based on how many tiny teeth-marks they have in them.

I select a relatively new mew plush from the shelf closest to me, grabbing it in my mouth via its head. Then I turn back around to Lorenzo and show him it.

He takes the plush from my mouth and tickles the area just underneath my mouth, the closest thing I have to a chin.

"Ohhh, has Bianca not played with you two today? Fine then."

He takes the plush and starts waving it around my head, like the mew is flying around. He's also trying to mimic the noise and it's a decent interpretation of what the TV says it sounds like, albeit a bit lower.

"Hi mew!" I coo at the doll, which is ridiculous because it's inanimate and doesn't understand. But it's still fun.

"Mew mew mew mew!" Lorenzo makes the toy stop and moves it around to match his words, and Latias floats over his shoulder.

Lorenzo is quite small, so there's still plenty of space between her, Lorenzo's head, her wing, and the roof. Latias has curved her neck round Lorenzo now so it's bent about 45 degrees, and she's licking the mew doll, cleaning it like she does with my ears.

Lorenzo chuckles again and looks for a different plush, reaching across the gap but keeping his feet still so Latias doesn't have to stop grooming the doll. "Let's see then... Oh, which one's this one?"

He reaches over my wing and picks up a miniature glaceon doll from the shelf. The moment I see it, I snatch it from his hand and shake it with my teeth, pretending that it's one of my kills.

"That's right, it's a glaceon. You really don't like them, do you?"

I don't, and emphasise it by spitting the doll out and then growling at it where it lands on its side on a beanbag.

I hate glaceon. They're ice types, which is a reason enough to hate them already. But they've also got a good maneuverability, and are quite smart. I've only seen three, and each one was annoying. And people love them. It's like an Absol, only more agile and more loved - No offense to Absol.

Latias stops grooming the pretend mew and starts growling at the toy with me. She also dislikes them. But she's also thinking about what Bianca told us.

"Latios, how long is ten minutes?". It's Latias' voice in my head, on the outside we're both still growling.

"I don't know... But it'll take Lorenzo a while to walk to the clearing right?"

She gives a miniature nod and we both direct our attention to Lorenzo. He's looking down and smiling at us, but we fly up and rub our snouts against his face.

"Oh, okay... Thanks?" Latias stops and squeals out of the room, and I follow her, turning around on the spot and chasing her tail feathers, leaving the glaceon doll abandoned in the room.

I can't see him, but I just know that Lorenzo is rolling his eyes as he's puts the mew back on the shelf and walks out of the room. Or something to that extent.

Latias and me fly down the stairs and into the kitchen before Latias considers stopping so Lorenzo can catch up. Even then, she doesn't stop. As I enter the kitchen, Latias has already turned around so she's facing the door to go back out again.  
"Move!"

I strafe to the side and she flies back into the hallway, presumably to nag Lorenzo.

"Come on, this way! You're so slow!" I can her cooing from in here. She's definately nagging Lorenzo.

Eventually, the man himself walks into the kitchen, with Latias' snout poking him in the neck.

"Keep going! Outside! We've got a suprise!"

"The whole point of a surprise is that you don't know it's going to happen" I point out, following her around the table.

"And? It's not like he understands. Look."

I look at Lorenzo, and he turns around to question Latias.

"We're going into the garden to play then? I'd need to put my boots on, and then I'd need to tie them..." He objects, not thrilled by the prospect of walking to the secret garden.

But by the time he's finished his sentence, Latias has flown to the front of the house, grabbed ahold of his boots and flown them back to him. He raises an eyebrow.

"Fantastic. Teeth marks and dragon drool.", leaning over to reluctantly put the boots on.

"I DON'T DROOL!" Latias playfully argues back. She doesn't drool, but all the same, she's still left teeth marks in the leather of the boots. Lorenzo makes his own boots anyway in his spare time, so it's not like this is a huge issue.

"Hurry up!". I swear, if Latias could maintain the focus to actually tie a knot, she'd have tied his boots for him, she's that impatient.

That done, Lorenzo stands back up and pulls the door handle down, standing back as he opens it inwards and then walks back out, Latias and me in close tow.

The moment there's room, me and Latias fly either side of Lorenzo as we go to the arch. Lorenzo turns and asks Latias a question which I fear may have consequences for any nearby fragile objects.

"Where's your ball?"

Latias immidiatly goes hyperactive and flies around infront of and Lorenzo.

"Well, I had it, then I didn't, then Katie had it, then I had it, then I didn't, and then Latios bumped into me like this " - for the sake of the story, I lightly headbutt her neck - "and we were stuck, then Bianca said she was going to give the ball to someone else until Cubone took it, so I guess someone else did get it, but she separated us, and Cubone had it last. Cubone."

It's a completely over the top answer to a simple question, and Lorenzo cuts to the chase.

"Bianca?"

To prevent another hyperactive rambling, I answer before Latias can put a word in.

"Yes. It's with bianca"

"And she is?". He wants to know where she is.

Latias immediately gives the game away and points to the end of the archway we've just entered.

"She's in the garden, with a suprise!"

"I see..."

There's a silence as we complete the journey to the garden.

As we reach the other end of the archway, I begin to smell that scent. The dangerous one. As a precaution, I fly ahead.

Lorenzo picks up on this immidiatly.

"Is everything okay Latios?"

"No. Something smells... Dangerous. I don't know what though!"

The fact I can't remeber what the smell is is a worry in itself. I ALWAYS remeber threats.

I'm half starting to think I'm imagining it, though, because normally Latias is the first one to pick up scents. This is supposedly so she can get the riper berries. But she's not saying anything, other than that she can't smell anything.

"Is your snout blocked?" I ask her. You never know, she might have 'caught a cold' as Lorenzo's dad used to say.

"I THINK I'd know if it was. I can smell your disgusting scent" is her sassy reply. The disgusting thing was sarcastic. We both know that it's actually highly attractive to her.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo is trying to rationalise.

"Latios calm down. The garden is perfectly safe. Look, it's never been this peaceful. Where are we going anyway?" Lorenzo asks as we lead him out onto the balcony and start decending the stairs.

I ignore his question.

I'm really alert, ready to attack anything... Watching as many angles as possible,and keeping myself between Latias and the places where threats are most likely to hide - trees, alcoves etc... Listening for that one rustle of a leaf which could indic-

"THIS WAAAAYYYY!" I jolt a meter upwards when Latias screams past me, barrel rolling around as she heads off the path and towards the clearing, leaving us behind.

"Wow. Bianca wasn't wrong about her being in heat, eh boy?" He clicks his tounge at me and I turn around, distracted by the noise even though I'm struggling to decide whether to fly after and protect Latias, or to stay and protect Lorenzo.

I've just made the decision to go after Latias when she comes flying back through the trees.

"I've told Bianca we're coming! Quick!"

She takes her paw and starts pulling Lorenzo by the crook of his arm, by using the bend in her own.

Lorenzo stumbles after her as Latias drags him, while I keep guard.

"Latias, I can't fly, slow down!" Lorenzo shouts to her, and to her credit she does slow down. Not much. But a bit, which is as much as you can expect. I can tell she's genuinely excited to see Lorenzo's reaction to his suprise, and I must admit I'm curious to see it too.

The scent of the bad thing is fading now, and I can smell Bianca and the others getting closer. We're almost at the clearing, and if I looks closely, I can see the white banner at the top of the trees in the clearing between the branches partially obscuring the view.

The edge of the clearing is very abrupt, and when we all break out from tree cover, it takes Lorenzo a few seconds to notice the banner, even though we're facing it, directly opposite.

There are no humans to be seen, but I sense aura from behind the bushes under the trees that the banner is attached to. And Bianca's smell. So that's where they're hiding. I can't see them when I'm floating next to Lorenzo, so they're quite well hidden. For humans.

Lorenzo hasn't noticed the food table to one side either, and steps forward towards the banner, while Latias flies alongside at stomach-height, looking up to watch his reaction.

"Wow, did you two ma-"

With a trampling of feet and rustling of leaves, an assortment of teenagers jump out from the behind the bush, all shouting.

"SUPRISE!"

Then, because it's apparently a regulation for epic stuff to happen during a suprise, Absol - with Cubone riding her back - jumps over the bush and newly arrived teenagers and lands with a solid 'THUD' a meter infront of Lorenzo. Both the two pokemon shout "suprsie" too, but me and Latias were too late to join in. Because when that happens, Lorenzo looks suitably shocked, totally not expecting the hoard of teenagers - or the two pokemon - to suddenly materialize.

Things go quiet for a second, and the everyone holds their pose, until Tony steps out from behind a tree and walks towards Lorenzo, arm outstretched. He's slim enough that we didn't see him behind the tree until he stepped out.

"I didn't want to hide behind a bush, and I'm not up to jumping as of late. So, suprise" - he does a jazz hands motion to the still surprise-silenced Lorenzo - "And well done on your new job!"

* * *

I've got a treat, **just for you guys**. An exclusive look at project Latios' release trailer. Check it out here:  
_youtu-be/1DG6Jhhw2OY_ (Replace the hyphen - with a full stop . Its de-listed to remain exclusive to you guys, so don't bother trying to search).

I hope you liked the sneak-peek.


	33. Chapter 33: Jealousy

Something very interesting happens at the end of the next chapter. The origin of the bad smell, as well as a few other things, is revealed. What was that smell? What are Latias' feelings for Latios? Is Jay actually a nice person? Does having no legs affect ones ability to dance? Will I ever stop asking rhetorical questions in a comic attempt to increase tension?

Sorry about the late upload. My bedroom was undergoing a remake and is now converted into a very high-tech animation studio. Obviously that was very distracting. Oh yes, and there's Christmas too.

Also, in this chapter, another awkward moment and some suprising news about Absol (although if you didn't see this coming, I suggest you buy some glasses or something, because it's pretty obvious. And cliché.)

* * *

Lorenzo looks so taken aback as all the girls run up to him with pens and pads of paper.

"LORENZO! Now you're going to be famous, can I have your autograph?" Emily is the first to ask, extending out her writing utensils as Lorenzo finishes his handshake with Tony.

Absol trots over with Cubone to me and Latias, who are both stood either side of Lorenzo like his guards. Cubone looks more than happy to see us and I suspect that riding Absol's back was not as comfortable as it would be riding mine or Latias'. We don't jolt around like she would.

Latias squeals as she goes nose-to-snout with Absol, inviting Cubone off her. He's more than happy to oblige, and he walks along Absol's mane, steps onto Latias' neck and walks along that until he's inbetween her two wing-shoulders, where he sits down, thanking Latias with various cute noises.

As Latias moves back from Absol, she tries telling us something.

"You know Bianca's mate?"

"Yep?"

"He's got some sort of noi-"

A "WHOMP WHOMP" noise cuts her off, coming out from the table with the food on. Jay gets up from behind it and shouts to Bianca. Of course. Only he would think that kind of music at that volume would be acceptable.

"Bianca! I got the stereo working!".

Wow, it's a good job he told us. We'd have never found out otherwise. What with all the really loud music and everything. Those last bits were sarcastic, just in case you didn't catch that.

Bianca comes to the rescue and politely asks him for some more tasteful music.

"No, Jay. Something else, he's 60, not 16."

The music stops and Jay mercifully disappears from sight under the table. I for one hope he stays there. Although it's a bit to close to my food for my liking.

Meanwhile, all the girls are chatting to Lorenzo about how he's going to be famous and everything. Conversely, Lorenzo shows interest in their things, like judo, boyfriends, bag-thief apprehension, holidays and, of course, pokemon.

"Who's Absol is that?" He asks, gesturing to Absol, who heads this and trotts away from us and back to Katie. She ends up directly opposite Lorenzo, a foot away, and looking up at him. Katie lifts her hand a little, and gives Absol's mane a little stroke with the other.

"She's mine. Why? Do you like her?". She asks like she's concerned he won't.

Lorenzo goes down on haunches and looks Absol in the eye.

"I think they're great. All mysterious." He hovers a hand over Absol's head like he's going to pet her, but doesn't. Probably because she doesn't look that friendly. He stands back up, smiling at Katie.

"Do you battle her?"

"Well, not often. I'm actually thinking of breeding her..."

This is news to me and Latias, so we share a guffaw, which involves Latias making the tinyist of sniggering noises. If Katie wants something to breed with Absol - which, let me reiterate, means forcing something to mate with her - it's going to have to be really tough, because there's know way she'd let that happen without a fight. Unless she wanted to.

Cubone is a lot less subtle about this then me or Latias.

"WOOOOOO YEAH! THERE'S CHANCE FOR ME YET!".

Without warning, Latias rotates sideways 90 degrees in the air, tipping Cubone down her wings, off her back, and onto the floor as a result. She swirls around before giving him the dagger eyes. The humans seem oblivious to all this as Latias gives Cubone a short, stony, telling off.

"Do you really think she'd let something like you mate her?"

Well, if that isn't a put down, I don't know what is. I fly down so my snout is a few centimeters from the edge of his skull and offer him my advice, conveniently nudging Latias away from him in the process.

"Cubone, before you say anything like that again, just remeber - Absol wants to eat you and Latias is in season. Now is perhaps not the best time to make mating jokes."

He just nods, so I fly back around to face the humans, giving Latias the 'leave off' stare as I do.

Lorenzo has carried on regardless.

"Oh, well, that would be sweet, a load of baby absol. What is that even called? Would they be pups? Or kittens?"

Absol provides some input, and barks the answer to Katie, who must already know.

"Pups!"

Katie relays it to Lorenzo.

"They're called pups, and each litter normally has 6 pups. I'd keep all of them."

Inaudible to humans, I hear Absol mutter under her breath.

"Damn right. Nobody takes MY pups"

Lorenzo takes a big breath in as well as the pan and paper, scribbling out his signature on the paper as he speaks back to Katie.

"Well, that'd be no mean feat. Looking after all those young pokemon. Big responsibility"

"I know. But Absol would help too!"

She sounds like she needs to convince Lorenzo, even though he's not actually stopping her. He hands the signed piece of paper back to her with a smile.

"Well, good luck. Who else wants an autograph?"

After a brief pet by Katie, Absol gallops back over to us. The first thing she does is growl at Cubone, who - evicted from Latias' back - is sat on the floor underneath the two of us.

"We're not even in the same egg group. If you make another even slightly suggestive comment, I will personally ice beam you so hard, they'll need more than a flamethrower and a pickaxe to get you out. Clear?"

I fly lower and back a bit so I'm closer to him. I still can't see him, but I can tell he's nodding because Absol grunts in his direction before lightening up and going nose to snout with me.

"Before you go off on one, It's not just Katie that wants me to have pups. I WANT to have a litter" - that's the name for a load of offspring at once - "So don't say about her getting one over on me just because she's my 'master' and everything". It's true. I say about humans bossing pokemon around a lot, but then again, I'm wild and she's not. We're bound to have seperate opinions.

I back away from her and take my arms out from my sides to look more friendly.

"No, it's great. Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"Well I didn't know if you'd approve..." She looks down and rearranges her front paws before looking back up. Latias interrupts and things get awkward.

"No, it's great! I want a litter too!" she responds, flying around Absol in a circle, then flying round above her and opposite me, rubbing her snout against my neck.

Absol just glares at me.

"Isn't that his problem?"

I have to think of something quick, so I say the first thing that comes to mind.

"Err... I don't think Latias can have a 'Litter'. We come from eggs."

Absol are born as live-births, and there can be many of them from each birthing. Me and Latias came from very large eggs, so the chances of having more than one egg from each birthing are low. Latias also stops rubbing my neck, though I realise why she'd done it in the first place. She's jealous that Absol is talking to me, so - because she's in heat - she's shown this rather blatant display of affection to ward her off. And also mark me with her scent.

It hits me that this is undoubtedly a GOOD thing because it means she's interested in me! Which means she'll definately say yes when I ask to be her mate! I don't let the emotion show, though, because females love suprises and I want to make my proposal to Latias as suprising as possible. Then again, perhaps it's just sisterly affection? I don't know.

Back in the real world, there's a pause as Absol realises I've actually dodged around the main question. Latias pauses for a second and then thankfully rushes off to pester Bianca about something. Absol watches Latias leave and then turns back to me.

"That's not what I'm getting at. If she wants offspring, that's your job. You two don't smell like you're mates ye-"

I'm saved from further questions/accusations by the loud music reappearing. This time, it's a pop song. And it's one of Latias favourites, which has her flying in circles around me to join in. Part of me suspects she's asked Bianca to put it on deliberately to have an excuse to pull me away from Absol. Or am I getting a bit to full of myself there?

"Latios! It's that song! Dance!"

This time it's Absol's turn to snigger.

"I'm not dancing to this". I flatten out my ears to make my point. Latias remains persistent.

"Yes you are. Come on! Move those wings!". I don't even like this song. It's stupid. The lyrics don't make sense. The beat isn't regular. And it's very annoying. But for some reason, Latias likes it.

"No"

Wait... Why am I saying no? Aren't I supposed to be showing her what a good mate I'd be? I'm pretty sure that dancing also comes on the list of things females like, next to fresh meat, smelling good and being really protective. They love dancing.

"Come on Latios. Please. Enlighten me." That sarcastic comment comes curtsy of Absol. Cubone has remained oddly silent, probably because one wrong comment and he could find himself in Absol's teeth.

"Fine. But I'm only doing this because Latias is nagging". I don't want Absol wanting to be my mate too. Which is a possibility, she wants pups after all.

Latias flies off away from any obstacles with me alongside her. The music is reaching its chorus.

It isn't a great song to dance to. Especially when you don't have legs to move to a beat. But Bianca likes it enough that she hasn't told Jay to change it. Either way, Latias peels off to the right and I turn left, heading to the edge of the trees, ready to fly in when the music sounds right.

Let me get something straight. Latias' version of dancing appears to be a series of collisions or near-misses that just so happen to be tied to a beat. In much the same way that we do those mid-air patterns.

I've looped around so I'm facing Latias, and she's nodding her head ever so slightly to the beat of the music. There's lyrics, but they don't make much sense.

When the chorus starts, so does Latias flying towards me, which also cues me to set off as well. The singer on the music also starts too.

'Hey I just met you'

At the end of he lyric, me and Latias both pass each other, my wing over hers and barely a centimeter apart. As we pass, we also start to turn upwards. In milliseconds, we're both facing the sky, Latias next to me but with her stomach facing the opposite direction.

We complete that move with a spiral that accelerates upwards, then loop-de-loops, in sync with each other, before we level off with the ground, facing the trees again, and fly directly at them.

'And this is crazy'

We split apart to avoid the trees and then travel the same distance around the trees edge and turn back, so we're facing each other again, almost like at the start except were on our sides and a bit higher up.

'But here's my number'

This time, Latias signals she wants to talk, so we both fly forward but stop, snouts barely touching as she speaks.

"Let's include Cubone!"

"Sure". Whatever makes her happy.

'So dial me maybe'

She flies really low to the floor and straight towards Cubone, and I fly just above her and behind. It's obvious what she's going to do.

Cubone stands still and focuses on Latias, like he's expecting her to dodge him at the last second. So he gives a suprised 'CUE!' as she runs right into him and flicks her head up immediately, catapulting him towards me.

I'm going to fly right under and miss him at this speed, so I slow down a tiny bit. Just as planned, he does a neat somersault in the air before landing directly in the centre of my back.

Absol, who was until that moment stood right next to Cubone, shouts at the three of us.

"SHOW OFFS"

Latias rather wittily retorts back almost immidiatly.

"DIDNT PREDICT THAT, DID YOU?", Having a casual dig at Absol's ability to predict natural events.

We fly slightly higher to avoid the humans' heads and then soar over them, Cubone steadying himself on my back as we do. He's just in time for the second turn.

Latias takes the outside as she's ahead, and I take the inside, and we turn the entire length of the clearing, before we're facing the other way.

We complete the turn and I flatten out my wings and angle them towards Latias, making it clear what Cubone has got to do.

He catches on and runs down my wing and onto Latias'. This frees up my back. Which Absol notices as we race towards her.

"That's looks fun! My turn!". I don't know what she means by that, but I'm pretty sure she can't join in with our performance. She can't fly and she's too large to stand on either of our backs. And yet, it looks like she's going to try, and she goes low on her hind legs, ready to jump. Surely she's not? No. Even she's not that stupid.

As I get within a meter, she starts to jump. But it's too slow, and I think I'm going to pass over her before she reaches my height.

Wrong. I hit her on her way up.

I run right into her, my head pile driving into her underside, making her yelp in suprise. I stop instantly, but Absol is powerless against her own momentum and travels a few feet on front of me before coming to a rolling stop on the ground. Once she stops moving, I fly up close to make sure she's not hurt.

I don't get there before Latias, though, who starts shouting in Absol's ear.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?". Cubone has tactfully jumped off her back.

Absol shakes her head, brushing Latias off as she rolls over so her underside is facing the ground again. But as she's standing up again, Latias pushes her back over with her snout, forcing her back on her side with a tiny squealing noise until she answers the question.

"WHY. DID. YOU. HURT. LATIOS?"

Time for me to step in before she actually does some form of damage. I fly to Latias and rest my bigger wing on top of hers. It's kind of like when Lorenzo would rest his hand on his wife's shoulder. It should calm her down.

"I'm fine, Latias. She just wanted to play". This excuse doesn't wash with Latias.

"No, she jumped on your snout. She was trying to get revenge for you beating her in the first battle.". This is what I'm on about with Latias being overprotective while she's in heat. Ordinarily she'd be fine with something like this, but because she's in season, everything has to be blown out of proportion.

"Erm, I don't think she was. Come on, we're friends. Now let her up."

Latias growls as she flies backwards, not content with the situation but dealing with it anyway. Absol rolls over again and gets up, then puts her front paws out and stretches her back, accompanying it with a quaint little streaching vocalisation. Her back makes a few popping noises before she shudders and moves her paws back to normal.

"Sorry Latios. I just wanted to join in."

"That's okay. I don't think you should try flying any time soon though."

"Well, yeah. I just... "

From behind us, just over the music, we all hear the clicking noise that Bianca makes when she wants our attention. Me and Latias simultaneously swivel around.

Bianca is slightly crouched, and rubbing the thumb and forefinger together on both of her hands. She's clearly got something for me and Latias, and odds are it's edible. She makes two more quick clicking noises, which pretty much seals the deal.

Me and Latias rush over to her, leaving Cubone and Absol behind.

Her hands are too close together for me and Latias to both reach them at the same time head-on, so we both end up at an angle to her hands, trying to pry her fingers apart with our snouts.

I can't smell anything in her hand though, and my suspicions are confirmed when she pulls her hands back to reveal empty palms. She holds them either side of her.

"Sorry guys, nothing for now. But Jay wants to ask a question."

She's brought us over here on the premise of feeding, just so we can answer a question from that dweeb? Huh, no.

Latias has the same idea, and we both turn to leave.

Bianca clicks her tounge again, and although I turn my ears to the noise, I keep flying slowly back to Cubone and Absol.

"Okay, guys? I've got treats?". Behind me I can hear a rustling noise. It is unmistakably the noise of a bag of treats being removed from a pocket.

Me and Latias both turn back around to face Bianca again. This time, the scent of some meaty treat thingies is present. It's wafting from the bag that Bianca is tauntingly waving infront of us.

"Jay can ask his question, then you can have your treat."

Lorenzo tries to reason with us too, though it's not as effective as the food bribe.

"It's a good question. Jay, ask them?"

Well now we don't have a choice to answer, because the moron is already leaning across the table and looking us in the eyes to ask us this question.

"Aren't dragons supposed to have tails?"

Latias is quick off the mark with a comeback.

"Aren't humans supposed to have brains?".

The real reason we don't have tails is because we don't need them. This isn't according to me, I've been told this by quite a few other pokemon, all owners of tails. Like an Absol or a Cubone, both of which have tails. Although Cubone have more of a stump.

The reason we don't need them is because - being flying animals - we don't have legs, and if we don't have legs we can't stand up, and if we can't stand then there's no need to balance, and the only reason a tail exists - aside from looking pretty and warning off predators - is to help balance on your feet.

That said, it's a good question. It's a shame Jay had to be the one who asked it, because I don't ever remeber a human actually asking us before. Latias tries to explain to Jay, though her theory is different and her explanation, terrible.

"We do have kind-of tails! Look!"

She raises her wings, tucks her head under her right wing and turns 90 degrees to look at her own tail feathers, only to have them move just out of her sight as she's turning her entire self, tail feathers included.

There's a pause and I can hear her - rather bemused - thourghts.

"Where's my flippers?"

She starts turning again, slower, as if she's trying to creep up on them, then suddenly, like she's pounced. Needless to say, the tail feathers stay just outside of her view.

She does three full circles, and I notice that Bianca has started laughing.

"ITS NOT FUNNY! I CAN'T SEE THEM!" Latias squeals as she starts turning again, even faster. They must be just in her view, but not quite, which is why she keeps turning.

Lorenzo starts chuckling, and the rest of the group start giggling too. Tony turns to Lorenzo and gives him a friendly nudge, with a grin on his face.

"So you said they were highly intelligent?"

Latias, meanwhile, has moved her head round to her other side and tried turning in the opposite direction, with the same result.

"WHERE ARE MY FLIPPERS? AHHHHHHHHH!"

This was funny to watch, but she's going to be there for hours if someone doesn't stop her. I suspect that the whole reason the question was asked in the first place was to make Latias look at her flippers, as this isn't the first time she's ended up doing this as the result of a question.

"They're behind you." I dutifully inform her, nudging one of her flippers with my snout. She stops spinning, facing me.

"Yeah, I know. But they keep moving every time I'm close to seeing them."

I wish I had a mirror so she could look at them, because the humans are now all bent over laughing, the confusion prominent in Latias voice even though they don't understand lati.

Bianca steps in with one of the treats in each hand, palm upwards and treat resting on top. All stupidity is forgotten and we both fly over to eat them. Latias goes to Bianca's right hand, so I go to her left.

"Thanks Bianca!". Politeness. Human females love politeness.

"Awwww... That was so cute, her chasing her own tail!"

From my right, I can hear Latias mutter into Bianca's palm. "They're flippers, not tails.". She's to busy eating to care.

The treat equates to a cube of meat that is about an inch long on all sides, and it's also been covered - at some point - in a gravy of some sort. All in all, quite tasty. My one regret over them is that they aren't that big and we don't get them often enough. I close my eyes to eat the cube and listen to the conversation as I chew.

"What are those Bianca?" Asks a voice.

"Oh, they're just treats. The Dragon version of cake."

"Speaking of cake, when are we going to cut this one?"

"Well we could now, I guess. Lorenzo's here. It so nice though? Why the rush?"

"Oh, nothing. I'd like to think that cake is my guilty pleasure though."

I don't understand it when people say "It's my guilty pleasure" and they're referring to something like eating lots of cake, or listening to a certain embarrassing band. When someone says 'guilty pleasure' they mean something which you shouldn't enjoy but do. And you should enjoy eating a lot of cake. You should enjoy listening to your favorite band, even if it is embarrassing.

You shouldn't enjoy hitting small children in the face, or pushing an elderly traveller in the main canal. But if you do, then THAT should be your 'guilty pleasure'. I want to see less people say "Eating cake is my guilty pleasure" and more "I hit small children in the face with a hardback dictionary. That's my guilty pleasure"

I open my eyes and can see Tony walk up to the cake.

"I think we should eat it now. Then have the rest of the buffet. I know you should normally have the sweet thing last but... I really want to see how good this is". Well, he made it. He should at least know what it tastes like. Then again, perhaps he shouldn't.

Lorenzo nods slowly.

"Yeah. Let's have it now."

Bianca turns around and glares at us just as we were about to pounce on the cake.

"Oh no. You two get served last."

"PLEASEEEEEE BIANCA?" Latias whines, having just swallowed the remainder of the meat cube whole.

"No. Now where's everyone's plates?"

Latias starts gently butting her head against my right wing. I turn my head to look at her, but she keeps doing it, eyes closed. Headbutting me for no reason.

I ignore her and look back as Bianca now has plates in her hand. I'm wondering how they're going to cut it until Lorenzo produces a knife from somewhere.

I might as well fly up and watch the cake get cut anyway. It seems to be a sort of big event.

Jay is on the other side of the table, and I don't want to be near him, so I hover above head-height and look over everyone else's shoulders. Latias appears to have done the same.

Everyone shuffles around until Lorenzo is facing outwards next to the cake, with bianca holding the plates to his side and on the other side it, Tony. He hasn't stopped with his beaming smile since... Well, since he arrived.

Lorenzo poses amid giggles with the knife point in the centre of the cake, looking like he's about to cut the ribbon in front of some new attraction instead of slice a cake.

"HURRY UP! IM HUNGRY!" Latias squeals, which makes everyone laugh because even though I'm the only other one who understood her, it's clear to everyone what she means.

"Okay, okay. We get it" Lorenzo mutters cheerfully, and then, with a jolly "3, 2, 1", he presses down on the knife, cutting the cake in half. This makes everyone cheer. Perhaps cake-cutting is like a private ribbon cutting for new jobs or something. Or perhaps everyone's just happy that they're a step closer to eating. I know I am.

In no time, the cake has been chopped into 12 equal pieces, and Bianca starts putting them onto plates.

8 slices later, and everyone has a piece, except me, Latias, Cubone and Absol.

Everyone is eating their cake stood up - plate in one hand, cake in the other - except Bianca, who has rested her plate with cake on it on the table and is kneeling under it.

Latias immidiatly rushes up to her and starts nipping her shoulder.

"Bianca, Cake? What about me? I'M HUNGRY!"

I join in fussing her too, but don't bite her shoulder like Latias is.

"Yeah Bianca? My cake? Absol and Cubone! They need cake too!"

After about the third repetition, Bianca snaps and turns her head in Latias' direction forcing her to fly back a foot.

"STOP BITING ME! Okay? I'm getting it now."

"It doesn't look like it! What about our cake? I want mine on a plate! Human plate!"

Bianca responds by removing her head from under the table and standing up, placing a red bowl and a blue bowl - which she'd obviously just grabbed from under the table - on the top, either side of the sliced cake. Latias' and my bowl.

Latias is now flying with her head right next to the bowl, eyes looking over the edge of it. I copy and do the same with my bowl, ready to pick it up when Bianca puts my cake in.

* * *

Yeah, take a guess what song my sister has been playing non stop through Christmas? I'll give you a hint - it's really annoying, it's been stuck in my head ALL WEEK and I deliberately changed one word of it in this chapter so that... Well, if I told you, the whole plot would be revealed.

Just to remind you, I live in England. I actually upload most of these at 11PM. Hence, just I was about to click the "Save" button, it occurred to me that Germans do not wear mittens.

Merry Christmas everyone, and look out for me on the internet. Something very interesting is about to go down...


	34. Chapter 34: Gift

Guest x3: Why thank you! I'm excited too. Just ordered some bigger engines too!  
Guest: Specsavers do great glasses. But seriously, how did you not see that coming? In any story, it's inevitable that something will end up having children :)  
Nethowin: Glad to know you share my pain with that song...  
An7: True that. I promise, after this event, the story resumes as of normal. Or does it... ***muhahahah***. Or perhaps I'm bluffing. Or perhaps that is a bluff... Perhaps nothing happens :)

* * *

With a 'thunk', Bianca drops my cake into my bowl. She gives me a quick scratch behind the ears, before turning to deal with Latias' cake.

I pick up my bowl with my teeth, being careful not to bite too hard because on the times where I've done that, the bowl - and it's contents - have flipped up and hit me on the snout.

I take my bowl and fly it halfway between Cubone and Absol, who appear to be playing a guessing game, and the humans. The moment I set my bowl down, Absol gallops over, and Cubone waddles after her.

"Cake? For me? You shouldn't have."

She starts trying to force her nose around my snout and into the bowl. I growl at her.

"No! My cake! There's still some left on the table if you nag Bianca."

She makes an 'ooo' sound and gallops off to Bianca. I settle down again to eat my cake except this time Cubone interrupts. And when I say 'interrupts', I mean 'stands there and looks longingly at my bowl'. I tell him the same thing as Absol.

"If you I want your own slice of cake, there's still one left. Go and nag Bianca."

He mumbles an 'oh, okay' before waddling off after Absol. I'm facing with the table just out of my field of view, so I can't see what they do when they get there.

Finally, I get to start on my cake.

The second I open my mouth to take a bite, Latias squeals overhead, bowl in mouth. She turns parralel to me before gliding down, almost landing on my wing. She's about a meter too close and her wing is resting on mine.

"Look, Latios! I've got cake too!"

I ignore her and open my mouth again to start on the cake. Despite all theise distractions, I've still not removed my head from the top of the bowl. This ends when I feel Latias bite my wing.

"What was that for?"

Her head, when I turn to look, is in her bowl, and she's started eating.

"What was what for?"

Oh I see. She playing this game. Well then, it takes two to play that game, and I'm not going to. I ignore her and start eating my food.

I finally get to have my first bite, and it tastes good. Sugary because of the icing, and the cake underneath seems just right as well. Another bite and I'm into the spongy bit, which is good too. I'm not a fan of sweet tastes, but it's still quite nice. The humans must be loving it. And as for Latias, well, she loves sweet things. I can hear her cooing with delight. I start taking more bites and listen in to what the humans are saying at the same time. Right now the topic of discussion appears to be how Absol will have her cake.

"Well there's no more plates, and I didn't think we'd need any more bowls. Didn't you bring her one?"

"I didn't think she'd be eating. But look at her, awwwww. I can't say no to that.".

I open my eyes and turn my head to look at them.

Absol is sat, back paws bent, front paws extended, looking up at Katie, like a well trained pet. Of course, she's not. It's just that, sat like that, pretending to be well trained, makes her more likely to get cake. Or does that, in itself, mean that she is well trained? Because she has associated stance with probability of food from her master?

Either way, I get back to my treat. I'm about half way through, and by the looks of the bowl, I've got mushed up cake all over my snout. I carry on eating though, still listening to the conversation.

"Can't she just eat off the floor?"

"Oh she'll probably fuss about not having a bowl like those two" - by the way her voice changes, I can tell she's looked at me and Latias - "But she'll just have to deal with it"

Her voice changes into one that sounds more playful and slightly more patronising.

"Here Absol! Cake! Good, you ready?"

Absol barks a 'yes' and then there's silence from that conversation.

Just as I'm finishing the last solid piece of cake, Absol walks up to us with a slice of cake in her mouth. She looks at me, then Latias (who is still making the cute noises as she eats) and then sets herself down opposite us, laying down with her front paws out infront of her. She gently lowers the cake before dropping it the short distance onto the grass. It lands on its side.

I'd offer her my bowl, only I'm still using it and she looks quite content to eat off the floor.

Absol doesn't eat the cake straight away though. She nudges it around the grass with her paw first, for whatever reason. Just as I finish eating, she starts, taking small bites one at a time.

I've licked my bowl clean but I know there's more around my mouth, so I run my tounge around that area, enjoying the last few bits of sweetness before the cake is well and truly history. It's a shame, it looked nice and tasted great.

Perhaps Bianca or one of her friends could spare me some of theirs...

I pick my bowl up in my mouth again and fly up and towards the humans, who are all stood chatting and eating.

I fly to Bianca first and gently headbutt her shoulder, since my mouth is full and I don't want to take my claws out just for that.

She was talking to someone, but she turns around to look at me after a second.

"Latios? You do know you're still wearing most of your cake?"

I didn't, but there's not much I can do since I've already licked around my mouth. I make a whining noise and shake my bowl slightly though, so she definately knows I want more food.

"Now then, we've all had our share. It was a very nice cake, but it's all gone now."

"No it's not. You've got some on your plate. Right there!"

I fly around her shoulder and after her plate, but she moves it out of my way, and covers it with her other hand.

"No. This is mine. You've still got some around your mouth".

I make the complaining noise again, perhaps she'll give in and give me some of her cake. She doesn't. Instead. She shouts to Latias, who is right now staring into her bowl looking somewhat sad. She's not got any cake left either.

"LATIAS! YOUR BROTHER'S STILL GOT SOME CAKE!"

That's a complete lie, but Latias believes it and immidiatly flies up and towards me. Bianca steps to the side. Latias arrives in under a second.

"You've still got cake around your mouth! I'll clean it for you!" She squeals, before diving for my snout.

I drop the bowl as I try to growl back, and it lands on the floor with a hollow sound.

"No! I don't need cleaning! Not now! There's people, and humans, and..." I run out of reasons and growl again, but - as always - Latias knows it's a hollow threat and carries on. Before I know it, she's licking around my mouth and taking the last few bits of cake off my feathers with her tounge.

The situation gets even stupider when Jay occurs next to Bianca.

"Aww look! She's looking after him!"

Well, she is. But I don't see why he needs to point it out. On the other hand, it prompts a response from Bianca, which is to say she pulls me by my scruff away from Latias and towards herself again. Latias stops licking me and starts biting the front of her left wing, which Bianca calls knating. We do it when something itches and we can't reach it with our claws.

"Yep, they keep each other clean and well fed. Latias cleans and Latios kills food."

That's not strictly true, sometimes I clean Latias and sometimes she comes hunting with me, but it doesn't really matter, because Bianca has started giving me a scratch behind the ear. I tilt my head closer and do a noise which Bianca calls purring - even though it's actually just a really low growl - to let her know I appreciate it. She giggles.

I coo and close my eyes, I can't help it, this ear scratch feels so nice. Like having a dip in a warm pool on a hot day, or the opposite. I open my eyes, and see Bianca chuckling slightly. "You just essentially a big pooch, aren't you Latios?" she says. I glance at Jay. He's looking at me slightly inquisitively. Like he's trying to figure out if he can touch me. "Bianca, may I..?" He starts, letting his trailing off ask the rest. Bianca looks me in the eyes. "Well?" She asks me. I have to admit, I think I am seeing a gentler side to Jay. For once, he hasn't rushed arrogantly into a situation. I suppose he deserves a reward for that, and he is TRYING to be nice.

I tilt my head round the left, exposing the left side of my head. Jay hesitates. "Its fine" Bianca says, I can see her smiling out of the corner of my eye. Jay takes his hand from around Bianca, and, very slowly, brings it towards me. His hand's flat, palm downwards. Eventually he rests it on the part of my head just behind my eyes. He's not being heavy handed, he's rested his hand very lightly on my feathers. "I never realised how smooth he was. Like silk" he says quietly, almost whispering.

I'm touched. Not just literally, but emotionally too. Perhaps Jay isn't as impulsive, arrogant and ignorant as I first thought. Although if Latias turns around and sees him touching me, I think she'd throw him a few miles so he could reconsider his last sentence. Or bite off his arm.

"I know what you want!" He says, keeping his measured voice, but starting to scratch the area behind my right ear, imitating Bianca who has stopped and is just looking at the two of us. Briefly the thought occurs to me that he could just be being nice to impress Bianca. But I let it slide, because he's scratching my ear in juuuussst the right place. I resume my cooing. He smiles. I make the mistake of doing a particularly low coo, though, and his hand darts backwards. Bianca laughs and pats me on the head.

"He wasn't growling Jay, you're fine. He does that she was he's happy. Honest, look... "

She reaches further forward and tickles the underside of my snout, and near my mouth. I make the same noise, and Bianca smiles at Jay.

"See? My hands right next to his mouth and he's not even nipping me. Its-"

She gets interrupted by Latias.

"ME NOW! MY EARS ITCH!"

"Here comes jealousy... Alright then"

I get moved out of the way as Latias shoves her head next to Bianca. She raises her arm and starts giving her a scratch behind the ear.

All of a sudden, in the corner of my eye, on the grass, I can see a red dot. It's vibrating very slightly, but it's definitely there.

I've seen it before. I don't know what it is, but Bianca sometimes uses it to train us to catch stuff. Except Bianca can't be doing this one, because she's tickling Latias. So perhaps this one is a real thing, and not one of Bianca's obviously remote controlled one.

But the real ones could be dangerous, so it's probably best to attack now and question what it is later.

I take a second to look at it some more judge the risks, it's counter-attacks and the like, but it's got no discernable type or body shape, so I can't see any way it can retaliate. Although just to make sure that that isn't a facade, at attack carefully, ready to jump back if it suddenly moves.

I dive down towards it, and as I get within 30 cm, it darts to my right. I dodge it in case it was going for me, squealing to intimidate it. That does something, and it dodges the other way. Now my chance...

I dive down a second time, except this time just as I get to it, it disappears. I bite where it was anyway, just in case it turned invisible and is still there, but all I end up with is a mouth full of grass. I swallow it and lie low, flattening my wings down and waiting for the dot to return, my snout flat against the ground and eyes scanning the garden.

It reappears just infront of my face, so I pounce again, flying directly forwards and biting down.

Again, I bite nothing. Perhaps it scampered around me when I moved forwards.

I turn my head to look to my right, but nothing is there. I turn to my right and see it.

It's on my left wing, apparently resting. It's funny, I can't actually feel it, and my wing feathers are quite sensitive. But then again, it looks no bigger than an ant, just very bright.

I'm worried that it might bite my skin or something though, so I immidiatly go to bite it. Just as I turn though, it jumps onto the grass, so quickly I don't see it.

Bianca was right when she trained us with them. They are difficult to kill.

I immidiatly turn around, only to have the dot turn too. Like its trying to jump onto my rear. Well, not if I can stop it first.

I speed up, and so does the dot, turning around and around but not getting any closer I'm not going to give up until it's left me and Latias and Bianca alone though.

It disappears again when Bianca makes a shrill noise, and for a second I think it's got her, until I realise what she's saying.

"Jay! Put the laser pointer away, that's not funny. Poor Latios..."

What does she mean? The dot was right on the grass and then it wasn't. I can't even sniff for it because it didn't have a smell. Bianca rests a hand on the edge of my wing and I turn to look at her as she talks to me.

"Latios, it wasn't real. Put your heckles down."

I don't exactly know what 'heckles' are, but I know that when Bianca tells me to put them down, she means I've got to stop ruffling my feathers. So I do.

"That's better, look, see, it was just Jay with his laser pointer". She points to a small metal tube that Jay has in his hand. Of course, it would be him.

I notice that Latias is behind Bianca, giggling. I fly round Bianca and go nose to nose with her.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, nothing..."

"Really?"

"Well, you didnlook really stupid chasing after that fake dot."

Yeah, like she wouldn't have done the same. She'd goes after pieces of ribbon thinking that they're a real enemy.

"Says the one who was chasing her own tail feathers."

That shuts her up. She flies in a circle until she's next to Lorenzo, and starts rubbing her snout against his cheek, cooing to him at the same time.

"Did you enjoy your suprise?"

"Yes thank you Latias, it was wonderful. Did you do the banner?"

I copy Latias and rub his other cheek with my snout, also answering him in the process.

"Latias did the drawings with Bianca. I did the letters with Jay. "

To my side I see Jay raise his hand. "I did the letters too!". Well, he can't understand me, so I suppose he's okay to mention himself again. He does deserve some credit I guess.

"Of course, this is wonderful. Thank you everyone!"

He pats me and Latias on the head twice more, which is our cue to stop harassing him. We both turn around and notice everyone is looking at him. Even Absol and Cubone - who mush have finished their cake - are sat to attention, looking up at him. Everyone is probably expecting some kind of speach now.

Lorenzo realises this too and coughs before starting. I don't know where to fly, so I just hover above the crowd.

"Well... Er... Let me see... OH YES! First, thank you all for this fantastic party, and while the banner was amazing" - he looks at Latias and she does a little happy coo - "I think the real star of the show was that cake! Eh?"

There's mumblings as everyone chats on how good the cake looked and tasted.

"So, as you all know, I've now got a job as a TV presenter at the station in Alto Mare. This means, unfortunately, quitting my job at the museum"

Everyone makes an "awwwww" sound when they hear this. I'll admit, they probably will miss having Lorenzo take them around and explain all the exhibits.

"BUT! It means that you will see more of me, on television, all around the world!"

Cheers all round, including me and Cubone. Needless to say, Latias is the loudest.

"Which should mean even more people will visit Alto Mare in the future!"

Everyone claps at this, because more people means more tourism, and more tourism means more money is getting spent at market stalls and shops. Tourists enjoy their holidays, locals enjoy more money. Everyone wins.

"And I'd like to think that all this is because of all of you guys for helping me through and bringing me to where I am today. After all, if it wasn't for you guys, I probably wouldn't be as noticed as I was."

It's true, they would speak to everyone who was interested about Alto Mare's most flamboyant and interesting tour guide. Which is probably how the TV station found him.

"So yes... Thank you everyone, and I can't wait to get filming!"

Everyone gives another round of applause in which Lorenzo stands around uncomfortably. Then there's a silence. It extends to an awkward proportion.

"Let's eat!" Latias squeals, heading for the table and breaking the silence. Lorenzo realises this is probably the best thing to do next.

"I think Latias has the right idea. Let's all have a buffet lunch."

Bianca grabs ahold of my wing before I can fly to the table.

"Oh no. You two can eat last. I know what you're like". In her other hand, she has Latias' left flipper.

"Awwww! Please?"

"No. Go and wait over there until I say." She let's go of us both and points to a spot at least 3 meters away.

There's not any other choice but to go there though, so I fly to the spot and lie down to wait. Latias does the same thing, just with a lot more attitude.

"Ugh! Why can we eat yet. I'm starving. BIANCA" She wails the last bit, but Bianca ignores her, opting to point out the foods available to the guests. As is they didn't know what a cheese is. I'm hungry too, and join in Latias' wailing.

"BIANCA! HUNGRY!"

The really annoying thing is, she's now helping Absol and Cubone get food. And by helping, I mean throwing bits of desirable food on the ground away from the table, and letting the two of them run over and eat it off the grass, such is the lack of bowls for them. I see at least three slices of meat and some bread go flying through the air. All of which are things I wouldn't mind having. Latias can't take it any more.

"THAT'S IT! I'm taking some of their food". The moment she says it, Bianca is looking at her. He puts her hand out in a stop motion when Latias sets off.

"LATIAS! GET BACK DOWN! DON'T MAKE ME USE THE WHISTLE!"

The whistle is Bianca's version of a failsafe when it comes to controlling us. Hence why it's always to hand when we're near food she'd rather us not have. The whistle is just that - a whistle. Except it's special, because it makes a very loud, but very high pitched, tone. Humans can't hear it, but we can just fine. And it's very loud. Painfully loud.

Needless to say, when Bianca blows the whistle, we stop what we're doing and try and get as far away from the noise as possible. They can make ones that mimic the cry of a predator, except those don't work on us because we're at the top of the food chain.

Latias immidiatly lies back down on the ground in response to the threat, mumbling into the grass. Bianca stares her down for a few more seconds, then cautiously turns around again, putting her own food onto a plate.

After an agonising minute, Bianca finishes and turns to the crowd.

"Before I let those two at the food, does anyone want any more fish?"

One by one, the crowd shakes their heads. Which means...

Bianca looks at us.

"You two can - " She doesn't get any further, because we've both already got to the table, at which point she becomes irrelevant.

Despite the fact that Latias was a significant distance closer to the table, her slower acceleration means that I make it there before her. Without even pausing, I fly directly over the pink fish and snatch it from the table with my teeth. The entire fish lifts off and comes clean off the plate. I fly down and onto the grass, trying to cover it as much as possible to start eating.

It's about as protected from other pokemon - chiefly Latias - as it can be, so I take deep sniff in of the scent of it before tucking in with large, plentiful bites.

The scent already tells me that the fish has been treated for human consumption: slightly chemical, bones removed and less salty than it should be if it was freshly caught. Other than that though, it's okay. Not been cooked at any point, so most of the nutrients are still there. Although I can detect a trace of another ingredient I've not come accross before. It's probably some kind of chemical that makes its safer for humans. It doesn't really matter though, the taste isn't really affected.

In a few bites, the fish is history. I turn around to get more, also wondering where Latias is. The question is answered when I turn around.

Hovering just above and behind me, Latias is looking quite angry, with a slice of bread in her mouth. She drops it and starts talking to me in a voice that means she's angry.

"Why did you take all the nice fish? Did you save me some?"

"Err... No. This was what Bianca put out for us... "

If I ever kill something, I always let Latias have some of it. But if it's food put out by Bianca, it's fair game in my eyes. There's no risk of the food attacking her, so she can get her own.

Latias looks somewhat upset though, so I point out the rest of the table, flying her over there as well. I hover my snout over some white fish I heard Bianca call 'haddock'.

"Look. There's still a whole haddock left?"

"Well... Okay then. But I like the pink fish."

Well, I could regurgitate it for her, I guess. Except that Bianca is never pleased when I do that deliberately, even outside. So she's just going to have to deal with the haddock.

She picks it up with her mouth and hovers over to where Cubone and Absol are eating, Absol by lying down and chewing off the floor, Cubone stood up and picking up pieces from the ground.

I want more to eat, and take another sniff of the scents available. Theirs camerupt meat, different cheeses, bread, leaves - although Bianca says the human equivalent of 'leaves' is called 'salad'-, berries, processed meats...

I settle on taking a cheese from the table, and pick it up with my mouth, before flying over to the other pokemon.

I arrive and set down next to latias, dropping the cheese on the floor so I can bite away at it. Latias is making the noises she normally makes while she eats, Cubone is making small snuffling noises as he eats, and Absol is quiet as she nibbles away.

I join them, and bite corners off my cheese. It's okay, but not as creamy as I thourght it would be. But it's food, and I chow down.

When the cheese is about half finished, Latias finishes the fish. And immidiatly starts trying to nip the cheese off me.

As I'm nibbling on one corner of the wedge, Latias takes a quick bite from the the end, prompting a growl from me. She moves her head back and pretends nothing happened, even though it did, because I can see her mouth chewing.

I cast a glance at her before moving slightly so I'm facing her. I'm looking right at her, so it's now impossible for me to not see her.

And yet, she still does, nibbling another piece from the cheese, this time while I'm looking right at her. I growl, but she negates it by making a really cute cooing noise.

"Are you still hungry?" I ask her, a plan formulating in my mind.

There really is no better time than now for this she's hungry, in season, playful and paying lots of attention to me. Now is the perfect time to give her the fish I caught! She can't really say no to me now, I've got everything she wants: food, companionship, playmate, the lot.

Latias nods in response to my question. "Why? Are you going to catch something?"

"Wait here!" I tell her as I fly off to the trees, anxious to get to the fish.

I can't wait. I'm finally going to ask her. My stomach feels like there's a yamyaw or two fluttering about in it, I'm that nervous. But enough waiting around, it's time I fina-

Without warning, my psychic stops. Doesn't stutter to a halt, or fade and then cut out. Stops.

Without it, my entire body comes crashing to the ground. With a slightly painful thud, I hit the grass, unable to fly back up.


	35. Chapter 35: What?

"LATIAS! BIANCA! HELP!"

I begin to panic. I feel fine other than the fact that I can't hover or do anything psychic, at all. But it's that that has me shouting for help.

Latias immidiatly flies over.

"Are you Okay? Why'd you stop flying? Did something hit you?"

Did it? It certainly feels like something pushed me into the ground. Except it was just gravity. I'm sure. I didn't feel anything hit me.

"I can't use psychic. It's stopped! Help!"

I'm well and truly panicking now, as Latias tries rolling, pushing and pulling me with her head. But it's not working. She's only managed to push me in a circle. Instead of facing the trees, I'm facing the other side of the garden, with the crowd in the left of my view.

I can move my joints just fine, but I can't fly. It's like my psychic muscle has just decided not to work. I'm trying to, but no matter how hard I try, I can't lift myself off the ground.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! BIANCA! LORENZO! HELP!"

As I shout, Latias flies next to me and starts rubbing my neck with her head. It's a nice gesture, and slightly calming... But I just want to get up and get her present. But I can't even move from this spot without help.

How can she think I'm a good mate if I can't even fly?

Bianca sees us and comes rushing over, as does Absol.

While Bianca starts asking questions, Absol starts sniffing around me.

"Latios? Are you okay? Hurt?"

I try to tell her with psychic, but it's not working. I can't even feel for her aura, let alone read her mind and send my voice to it.

"I can't fly! Or psychic talk! My psychic's just stopped!"

Latias interprets for me and Bianca's face changes to one of confusion.

Out of nowhere, my vision goes blurry, turns wavy like I'm spinning around, before stabilising again. When it recovers, I'm still looking at Bianca, except she's tilted. No, I'm tilted. I tilted my head. I tilt my head back to look at her straight, but even that motion makes my vision blur and a pain develop behind my left eye.

What happened to Absol? She was sniffing around my face before my vision when funny. I can hear Latias shouting.

"JUST STAY AWAY FROM HIM! SHOO!". Is she yelling at Absol?

Lorenzo appears behind Bianca, and replaces her sitting infront of me. Bianca must have called him or something... He's looking at me now. And holding a finger up.

"Latios, I want you to look at my finger with both eyes. My finger, nothing else". I do as he says and he moves the finger around my vision. It doesn't turn wavy again.

"Well, your eyes seem to be fine... How's your hearing?"

As I respond, the group of girls begin to appear behind him. From the floor and with Lorenzo kneeling down, they appear very tall.

"I can hear fine. But my vision went funny a second ago. I couldn't see!"

Is it me, or is the noise from the crowd getting louder? And more muffled...

I perk my ears up, because it sounds like I'm hearing through my feathers. But the sound quality doesn't improve. I can hear Latias squealing again, but not what she's saying. But she's advancing on the crowd, and I hear the word 'Away' So she must be telling them to go away. Good Latias. They were making me feel blocked in.

I rub my left ear against the ground, but the sound still sounds muffled. It's almost like there's nothing blocking it and m

My vision blurs again, worse than before, and I slam my head against the ground, I'm that disorientated. What is going on? Why is this happening?

My vision comes back, and the sound clears up. I can hear Lorenzo now, mumbling to himself. In the background, Tony is talking to the girls, but he's facing away.

I feel something on my neck though, and it starts cooing. Latias has flown down next to me and is rubbing her head against my neck again, and making nice soothing noises. She has such a great voice. I could listen to that all day. Week. Month. Year.

I can't fly. My hearing is wavy. My sight keeps going funny. I can't psychic. But Latias is still here. Perhaps she's telling me that whatever happens, she'll always be with me.

It certainly is a soothing thing to have when all my senses start going wrong.

With a BANG! The world snaps into focus again. It feels harsh and bright in comparison to the nice but confusing feeling of a few seconds ago. On the plus side, I can hear and see fine now, like the bang fixed everything. I try to fly up, but it still doesn't work. But I need to fly now, because I'm pretty sure that bang was real. It certainly looks like it, because Latias jolted and all the humans except Bianca have ducked. It looks like they're shying away from the opposite side of the garden. What was that?

There's a second explosion, and this this time I see it.

Behind the ducked crowd, at the opposite side of the garden, the ground itself seems to erupt and turf itself up. Bits of garden fly up in the air, then rain down after a few seconds.

I try to get up, try to fly. But all I can do is struggle on the floor.

"Latias! Do something! Attack! Hyper beam?" I shout at her, but I can see her floating motionless and staring directly at the ground where the explosion just was.

A series of mechanical groans erupt from the ground. I can't see what Latias is looking at because Lorenzo is still in the way, but I can tell by the way her eyes widen, it isn't good. I'm right.

Lorenzo makes the tactical manuver to leap to his feet and tackle Bianca to the ground, keeping her low. She goes down with a shreik and I see what emerges from a newly blasted hole in the garden. As it does, my vision starts to go wavy again. I fight to keep it in focus.

A giant spider. Can't be real. Can't be. Perhaps my head playing tricks. But no, because Latias sees it too, and dives behind my rear, where I can't see her. At least she's safe though, whatever the spider can do, it'll have to go through me first to get to her. Even if I can't move, attack, or see properly.

My vision collapses even more, and sound starts to fade and echo. Like I'm hearing it through the other side of the archway. And smoke starts pouring out of the hole in the ground. Is that real?

From the spider, I start to hear an amplified voice. Someone speaking from inside the spider? What? Two people?

"Prepare for trouble!"  
"Better make it double!"

The words are said, but it's like it's a song. But I know who says those words. The people who the TV tells us to be scared of at every minute. The people who steal pokemon, especially legendarily.

Team Rocket. And if they're here, it can only be for one reason. And it isn't for Cubone.

"To protect the world from devestation"  
"To unite the people's of every nation!"

The voice is coming from a speaker or something, but the first voice, a woman's, sounds familiar. Harsh. Nasel... Who is she?

The answer is in my head. But, like my sight, my thourghts have clogged up and I can't keep a coherent thourght.

She's the voice. The voice is that smell from earlier. I KNEW IT! Where's Latias? Has anything had that fish for her? The spider? Spiders bad!

"To denounce the evils of truth and love"  
"To extend our reach to the stars above"

THIS IS WHERE THEY SAY THEIR NAMES! THE WOMAN. IT IS HER. WE KNOW HER. She was my friend? Latias' friend? No?

"Cassedy!"  
"And Butch!"

On top of the spider, two figures appear. A man and a woman. I didn't see them get there, but now they are, I'm confused...

The woman who said she was Cassedy isn't Cassedy. It's Bianca's mother.

BIANCAs MOTHER!

But Bianca's mother was called Jessica? This is Cassedy... But it was her smell in the garden earlier... And... And... Bianca's mother? Did they look the same?

A splitting pain cuts into my head and I yelp out, long and loud. It is Bianca's mother? Isn't? Jessica?

"Poor little dragon, he's lost his might..."  
"Don't even surrender, you can't even fight"

The last lyric was aimed at me, I'm sure. Of course it was. But how can they have put me like this? They haven't shot me with anything, or hit me, or attacked me? How did they know I was going to stop flying now? How did they do it?

All goes silent as the two villens hold their pose on top of the spider for a second. Then Bianca stutters.

"M... M... Mum?"

Cassedy looks down at her like they've known each other a long time. And when she speaks normally, I know they have. It is Bianca's mum. And I can't move to defend her or Latias.

"Why yes, sweets. It is. Nice to know you remeber me."

Bianca looses it instantly.

"DONT CALL ME SWEETS YOU BITCH!"

Well, none of us expected that. Then again, none of us expected a giant spider to explode out of the ground. Latias is still quivering behind me, I can feel her pressed up against my tail feathers.

"Ohhh look at that temper. What's wrong, Bianca? Didn't you want to see your old girl again?"

"No. I hate you. You tried to capture Latios. Your not my mother, go die."

"Now then Bianca dearest. Be careful what you wish for."

Bianca does a fair imitation of me and starts talking very angrily through her teeth. I'm proud. Except its my job to protect her, and she shouldn't have to do that.

"You... You did this to Latios, didn't you..."

Jessica - or Cassedy - is too high up for anyone to do anything. Physically high up. Even Absol is cowering, hunkered down with her tail between her legs. Not a fan of spiders either. Cassedy laughs and claps sarcastically.

"You always were a bright spark. Yeah, that was us. Very clever too. You remeber your one weakness, Latios?"

She's looking at me. I don't credit her with a response. Not even a hiss.

"White chocolate. Guess what it contains that's different to normal chocolate? Citrezine Hydrosulphate. They use it as an alternative preservative for the white food coloring. It's also the thing that made you be sick on my carpet that day. In low doses, you just throw it up. But if you eat - say - half a fish packed with the stuff, well. It starts with hallucinations. Then excessive sweating - which you can't, so it'll just be panting. Dehydration. Thinning of the blood. And finally, a coma. From half a fish, Latios?"

I give her a response, hissed.

"Sucks to be you then, because I ate all of it".

I know what she means. The fish I stole off the table. The one that wasn't sealed properly. The one I ate all of and should have shared with Latias. That's what's made me immobile.

"Well, you're still awake. But your sister isn't. Down and out. Of course, she's smaller than you, it'll have got to her first. It wasn't even difficult. Sneak into the garden while your were out with Bianca, find the nearest food you like to eat, and inject some chemicals into it. Just a few more seconds, and you'll be sleeping like a baby. And then? Well. You'll find out soon enough."

That's where she's wrong. I'm going to fight through this. I'm not going to fall asleep. So long as Latias needs protecting, I'll be there.

And Cassedy has already made a mistake. Latias didn't eat any of the poisoned fish. She's perfectly awake. Not even ill, just scared and hiding. So even if I do fall victim to their poison, Latias will still be able to fight. Which she may have to, as my vision blurs, and the pain in my head returns again. I fight against it, but I can't help, and cry out again. Cassedy smiles. I can't see it, but I can hear her. She's grinning. At my pain. And her voice is laden with mock sympathy.

"Poor boy. While we're waiting, butch, didn't you have something to say?"

When Butch talks, it sounds like he's chewing rocks as well. A very manly voice.

"Oh I can't wait to say this. Oh. Here it comes..."

MY vision fixes and I see him look down at Jay from the roof of the spider. He breathes in, and then says it.

"Jay... I am your father".

Jay looks confused. I'm not, butch is copying a film about this guy in a robe...

Wait... Butch is jays dad? Well, that would explain a lot.

"You... You're my dad?"

"That's right, son. I left your mother the moment I saw your ugly face."

Jay takes this alarmingly well and rationally.

"Hmph. Well that would explain a lot...". Is he stalling for time? Well I hope someone has a plan with what to do with the time, because everyone is still staying still. Doesn't anyone have any pokemon to send out that will actually attack?

I struggle on the ground again to try and fly, try and prompt Latias to move, but neither does anything except from make Cassedy grin, even wider and shake her head.

Jay, meanwhile, is still talking.

"Wait, no. You can't. Because I'm going out with Bianca. And if you two are going out, that means she's my sister!?"

Lorenzo speaks up, further complicating things.

"Hold it... Butch, who is really James, is Cassedy's who is really Jessica, husband . His name was James, not butch! And Bianca and Jay are only two years apart? James would have had to have been sleeping with both of you. Why have you both changed names? This is all a bit -"

Butch interrupts as Cassedy checks her nails.

"Well you see, old timer, when we got to the Rocket academy, there were two other recruits who had the same names as us. And they couldn't have that. So, we were told to either change names, or leave. As for Jay's mum, well. I had a one night stand with her and that was it. Take a guess who came along shortly after... "

Lorenzo turns and looks as Cassedy, before delivering a swift verdict.

"You're not my daughter. You're evil."

"Tell it to your TV show, dad. I don't care"

Jay is still coming to terms with the conversation, Poor Jay.

"Wait. I was an accident?"

Butch looks down at him again.

"Afraid so. What does it matter though?"

"What does it matter? You... You..!"

Jay bunches up his fists, but stays where he is.

I don't really get his problem. Really, you can't have accidental offspring. Any offspring is good, because it means there's more of your species. Although it's interesting to see that Jay's father had done what any other wild male would have done, and immidiatly abandoned the mother to look after the child. That's a common occurrence in the wild, but apparently frowned upon in human society.

Butch just laughs.

"Hahaa! Ohhh! Big man, what's he gonna do?"

Jay, in response, let's out a relatively weak roar, and runs straight for the spider - which I've now figured out, is mechanical. He covers ground quickly, and reaches one of the legs before butch can react. I can't see what either plans on doing though.

Jay reaches the leg, and jumps. It's quite an impressive jump, and it brings him halfway up the leg. He sticks there for a second, a meter off the ground, and begins climbing the metal limb. CLIMBING?

Katie is the next to take action. She shouts to Absol and stands up, pointing at Cassedy.

"Absol! Now! Snap out of it! Run and jump onto there, bite that woman!"

Absol responds with a weak meow.

"I don't want to! It's big and..."

I coo at her from my vulnerable position on the floor.

"Please Absol! I can't move! Latias is in danger! We're all in danger!"

She turns to look at me, and my vision starts to wave and fall apart again. I keep it together enough to see her canter right next to me and mew in my ear.

"I'm risking my life if I do that. So hear me out. We're in the same egg group, right? I do this, you mate me."

What is she thinking? At a time like now, really? Ahhhh my head! This hurts so badly. My hearing starts going far off, and I get desperate.

"Yes. Help me and I'll help you".

Her response is to lick me on the side of my snout, then gallop towards the spider.

As my vision and hearing fails completely, I think two things. I hope me and Absol ARENT In the same egg group. Then I won't have to mate her. And I hope she doesn't hurt herself fighting Cassedy.

It's not that I don't find Absol attractive. It's just that Latias is my mate. Not Absol. If there was any other way I could solve this, I'd take it. But now... With my thourghts like this... I can't see any way out of this.

I can still hear, but my sight has gone completely. I've accepted that. So long as someone stops Cassedy and Butch, though, I'm sure Latias can fix that. She can fix anything. But only if we avoid capture by Cassedy.

"What's this?"

A clank noise. Then another. Then another.

The clank noise becomes regular, in sets of eight. Even though it feels like I'm getting further and further away, I know that it's getting closer. The ground is starting to shake.

"ABSOL!"

"JAY!"

"KATIE!"

"ABSOL! LOOK O-"

There's a thud and a clang noise at the same time. The sound of fur hitting metal, and metal winning. Absol?

A second later, I hear a thud and a yowling noise. It is Absol. Judging from the noise, she's hit the ground to my right, about a meter away. And hard.

I open my eyes, it feels like they're shut. But nothing. Just swirls of color and blurs and nothing that makes...

"Latios. I'm scared."

Latias' voice cries in my head. Crystal clear in contrast to the surrounding jumble of words and lights.

"Don't let it near me Latios! Stop it!"

I snap back to reality, just like that. The real world, not the colors and lights of last time. It doesn't look good.

Jay is on his back, on the floor. The spider is even closer now, the closest leg three meters away. I can't focus for too long, but I can see a white blob in the corner of my vision that I know is Absol. I can't see it moving. Is she okay? Is she even alive?

I try growling at them. One last warning. It's all I can do. Shout. Try and intimidate whatever is running the giant spider.

"Grahagbl gabesd belmg!".

My mouth won't listen. I can't even shout words anymore. Just a noise, and it wasn't even legible. I try ordering Latias to fly away, but even that doesn't work.

"Latianng. Flllnn! Ghllooo! Nehar behn sg!"

Latias stays behind me, cowering under her wing.

The spider's legs are moving, over the top of me. I can feel it. Something tells me this is it. Or is that just the poison messing with my head? Well, if it is, then it probably is the end. Of what, I don't know. But something is about to finish, and its not going to be famous a nice ending.

I struggle, fearing that the leg is going to come down and crush me, but it passes over the top and over Latias. The main body of the spider comes to a metallic stop four meters above us. This is it. Latias is too petrified to move, I can only wiggle, Absol is fainted or worse, Cubone is nowhere to be seen and there's no one else. Even Jay is out.

Inside the mechanical spider, a clanking noise. Then a hiss, like it's about to attack. The underbelly of the machine splits open and a metal claw drops down. The claw itself looks like two parts of a cage that had been cut in half.

I want to hold Latias. Under my wing. Right next to me. And not let go. That way, even if they took her, I'd be taken too. And they wouldn't be able to seperate us, because I'd be holding her.

But I can't even turn around to face her. In fact, she's stopped quivering all together, and is completely still. Petrified.

So badly I want her to fly away. Or at least under my wing. But she's not.

I'm helpless to do anything but struggle on the ground as the claw gets closer and closer. It opens up, before lowering further. But it's now lowering behind me.

The claw drops behind me and out of my sight, towards Latias. I turn my neck and can see what happens out of the corner of my eye.

The claw is lowered around Latias until it's touching the ground and the cable that was holding it goes slack. Then the jaws start to close, tugging at the grass as they scrape along it.

I feel a blast of hope when the underside of the jaws reaches Latias' wing, as she squeals out and flies up in an attempt to intimidate it. But it's a machine, and it's not intimidated.

I can only watch as the two sides of the claw get closer together, forming the complete cage. Latias is spinning around and headbutting every available surface, but the cage is almost made. The jaws close a few more centimeters, then make a clicking noise. Locked.

As the cage begins to rise, Latias doesn't give up. She starts biting on the bars, attacking them, trying to bend them by fitting her head through, but all to no avail.

I'm filled with hope as I see her charge an electrical attack, only to be broken when she fires it at the cage and nothing happens.

"LATIOS! PLEASE! HELP!"

"Latjaigs! No! Iglub fhu!". It's no use.

My vision fails again for a few seconds, and this time when it comes back, it's blury. I still catch a glimpse of Latias as she gets swallowed up into the belly of the machine.

"Latios! Wait! Please! I want you to b"

Whatever she was saying, gets cut off with a huge clang as the hole in the bottom of the spider closes up. The spider starts walking back towards the hole in the ground.

The crowd let's out a collective gasp.

"Latias!"

I can hear her shouting from inside the machine. What is it doing to her? It can't be her shouting through, it doesn't sound quite right. I must be hallucinating like Cassedy said.

I try one last time and charge a hyper beam. But I can't. Whatever poison it is, it's robbed me of my aura. Which means I can't do any attack. And I'm useless. Hopeless to watch as Latias is taken away in the giant spider.

It stops at the edge of the hole. Has Latias broken it from the inside!?

Butch and Cassedy reappear from a platform on the top of the machine. Then Latias, caged, appears next to Cassedy, rising up through the floor.

I hear a thwomping noise over and over again. It sounds like the blood rushing to my head when you I'm tipped upside down, except I'm not being. It drowns out all the sounds except Cassedy, who I can hear crystal clear.

Why have they reappeared?

"Well, loosers, we'd take both your pokemon, but our ride home only has room for one"

A wind starts to blow through the garden and the noise gets closer. It's not in my head, that noise is real. Is it? I loose sense of direction completely and it feels like the garden is spinning, even the trees in the background. But the spider stays in place. I'm clearly seconds to blacking out.

Over the top of me, I see a bird giant. It's got two wings, with blades on the end. Not a bird. A helicopter. Wings with a helicopter and two sets of blades on each wing. That's the noise.

I look back at Cassedy and freeze. She has a gun. Like on the TV. But real. One that shoots bullets and kills things. Like things us things.

My vision fades around the edges as the helicopter hovers above the giant spider, but I want it my vision it to go entirely.

Cassedy looks at Latias, finishing her sentence

"And you'll do nicely".

Then raises the gun. Latias goes low on the floor of the cage and growls. Cassedy points the gun at her. Then pulls the trigger.

There's a bang louder than anything I've ever heard before, and my world collapses into a blackness darker than the deepest depths of space.


	36. Chapter 36: Reality

Where AM I? What happened to me? Why is it dark?

Far off questions that rebound about my brain after I wake up. I didn't even realise I was asleep, the last thing I remeber was eating some fish at Lorenzo's party.

Wait a minute...

I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. I can't smell anything. I'm definitely awake, but all my senses aren't responding. I've got some feel of touch, though, I can feel a weight on my back, and it's going across to my wings.

So that must mean I'm lying on my back and wings. Not a good place to be. My underside must be completely exposed. Anything could attack it.

I stay dead still, not wanting to attract attention until I know my surroundings. I don't want to try and break out of being held captive - which is a possibility - if I don't know where I'm going. Though finding any more out will be impossible with all my senses not working.

I feel a light touch on the outward facing, blue part, of my right claw, the shielding. My arm is still tucked into my side, though, and I still don't want to move anyway. If it's a threat, the best thing I can do is play dead, since I can't really attack if I can't see.

The light touch becomes firmer, and I can make out the contours of a human hand resting on it. Like there's someone pushing, no, leaning, against my arm. The hand has four fingers and one thumb, with the fingers curling around. It is too small to be male, so it must be a female humans hand. And if it is, it's exactly the same size as Bianca's. And the same smoothness.

It's most likely Bianca then, but I can't see or smell her, which is becoming worrying as my eyes are open and there doesn't appear to be anything blocking my snout. Not that I'd be able to see it.

But if it is Bianca, she's now tugging on my claw like she wants me to withdraw it from my side. Perhaps she's going to take me somewhere?

I withdraw my arm and let it go slack in her hand. She moves it around and faces it upwards, and I suddenly know what she's going to do.

Bianca's great grandma taught me this. It's called 'blind sign language', and she showed every family member how to do it, since her husband was going deaf and blind. And Bianca is using it now.

Does that mean I'm deaf and blind too now?

I try to avoid the panic that this thourght causes and concentrate on what Bianca is signing out on my hand. It's done by drawing out the letters of the words, and I wait as she 'writes' out an entire sentence on my arm, letter by letter, abbreviated to make the message as short as possible.

"You're in the pokemon centre. Hospital"

The pokemon centre? How did I get here? What happened? At least I'm safe.  
Bianca carries on.

"I'll get joy, take blindfold off"

Blindfold? I'm wearing a blindfold. Okay, that must be why I can't see. And she's getting nurse Joy to come and take it off. But why can't I smell? Or hear?

I wait for her to write that out, but she's let go of my arm and it's just flopping on the same surface I'm lying on. I daren't move it in case she wants to speak again and I accidentally swipe her. But nothing happens.

After about a minute, my claw gets picked up again, and from the hand I can tell it's Bianca. She writes on my claw.

"Stay Still". Well it's not like I'm in a position to disagree.

After a bit more waiting, I feel something - or someone - moving around the bottom of my head. Like they're scratching the closest thing I have to a chin. Bianca lets go of my claw and I'm worried she's going to go away again, but then I feel her lean her body against mine, like she's leaning across to look at me face-to-face.

I feel something start to slide off my head, sliding over my ears and off my mouth. I didn't even realise it was there until it started being taken off.

The next sense to return is my smell. What hits me immediately is the lack of one. Normally there's always lots of interesting background smell, but I can only smell three specific things here. A really strong chemical smell, Bianca and one other person, whom I don't know. But where's Latias? Why can't I smell her?!

I can also hear a beeping sound now.

Beep... Beep... beep beep... Beep... Beep... Beep... beep beep...

It's looping over and over again, and it kind of reminds me of when humans are in hospital on TV and they've got a thing that says how fast their heart is beating. I'm in a hospital now, according to Bianca. So am I attached to one?

The final question is answered when whatever it was that was attached to my head - I think the word would be muzzle - is fully removed and I can finally see.

It's very bright, so I have to squint. But yes, this looks like a hospital like on the TV. Except, shouldn't I have other patients next to me? Or there be other patients around? I can't see Latias either? WHERE IS SHE?!

I'm in a perfectly square room, and there's only me, Bianca off to my right, and the person who removed the muzzle, probably nurse Joy, behind me.

The room is absolutely white, not a speck of dirt anywhere. Above me, there's an elaborate light fitting with 8 bright lights shining directly onto me. The beeping noise is coming from a screen that's on a platform, and on the wall I'm facing now, there's also lots of other medical stuff, none of which looks familiar. Except... Is that a knife? Scalpel?

Have they opened me up? Have they cut into me while I was asleep? Is that why my throat is so dry, because they've cut me open and drained away all my liquid?

I start to try and move, to look at Bianca and ask her all theise questions. But I can't. The only thing I can move is my head, up and down and left and right. The rest of me feels like I've been strapped down. Why am I being confined?

"I'm sorry about the muzzle, Latios." Bianca starts talking and I stop struggling. Perhaps she'll tell me what's actually going on.

"They couldn't put you in a pokeball, but they wanted you to be secure, so they had to do it. They were quite scared of you, I'll be honest". She's not telling me who 'they' are. But they're scared of me too, so we're kind of on the even.

A new voice appears behind me, nurse Joy's. So that's probably who 'they' are.

"Is he okay?"

Well, my throat is killing me.

"Thirsty!" I coo at Bianca, but my throats so dry it just comes out as a quiet, feeble, dry sounding noise.

"He sounds dehydrated. I'll get some water" Nurse Joy replies, and I can hear her walk over to the other side of the room and start doing stuff.

"Thanks" Bianca says, her sad mood obscuring how thankful she actually is.

After a pause, she starts talking again.

"I know this looks all scary and everything, but the nurses say you'll be fine. They've given you medicine and that kind of thing, but not any operations or anything"

I know an 'operation' is what they call cutting people open, so I'm glad I've not had one. But then... Why am I here? In this room operations are done in? Am I about to be asked a question that I won't like to answer?

"They've kept you in here though because you got spotted coming in, and now everyone's after you". Bianca was already tearing up as she said that last bit, and she finally gives up, collapsing her head into her hands and sobbing openly, upset that all the years she's spent hiding me and Latias are now in vein.

I can't do much while tied down, and my mouth is too dry to try and verbally console her. But I take the arm I folded out and rest it on where I think her knee is.

"Thanks" she sobs out.

I'm not really suprised that I've been found out. It was only a matter of time, really. And it doesn't even matter, actually, because I had a plan all along. We can just pretend that whatever sighting it was, was actually just a ditto with a talent for copying pokemon from pictures. And that must mean that Latias is safe too, probably in the room next to this one. Yeah. And they didn't want to put us in the same room because they were worried we might escape. That's it. All the same, it would be nice to see her. Or even catch her scent...

Nurse Joy wheels over a trolley with some machine on it and a tube coming out of it. She hands it to Bianca, who raises her hand and takes it.

"Could you put this in his mouth for me? They prefer their owners to do this kind of thing if they're awake"

Bianca looks at the tube, stands up and looks at me, eyes locking into mine.

"This is your water, Latios. I need to put it in your mouth. Open up?"

I open my mouth and she very delicately feeds about 7cm of the tube in, before manipulating my jaw so I'm lightly biting on it, keeping it in my mouth. She looks at nurse Joy, who is now holding a gray box that looks like a pedal.

Nurse Joy is looking at me, unsure of how to actually talk to me. I get this a lot, like when Bianca's friends first tried talking to me.

"Err... Latios? This switches the water on and off. I need to put it somewhere where you can press it. Is under your wing okay?"

I try moving my left wing and it does, but only very little. It's definately strapped down.

Nurse Joy sees this and loosens whatever is is that was stopping me.

"Better?"

I nod my head, and then raise my left wing so she can put the pedal under it. She does, being very careful not to actually touch my wing, and then stands back up again.

"Okay, Latios. You can put your wing down now"

I comply, pushing the pedal and expecting water, but nothing happens.

Nurse Joy pushes a button on the thing she wheeled over, and a quiet hum fills the room.

"If you want to drink, lift your wing up and the tube will give you water. Okay?"

I try it out the second she finishes explaining, looking her in the eye the entire time.

I slowly lift my wing and water begins to come out of the tube, filling my mouth. The more I lift my wing off the pedal, the faster the water goes. Rest my wing on it, and it stops.

I swallow down the water that I'd just filled my mouth with, and instantly my throat feels better.

"That's good! Thank you, Nurse Joy!" I coo at her, sounding somewhat like my normal voice now, with the tube just distorting my speach a bit.

She looks at Bianca and she translates. "He was saying 'thanks'. And thank you too"

Nurse Joy smiles. "That's what I'm here for!". She then takes a few steps out of my vision, but stays in the room. That's fine by me.

Bianca starts talking again.

"Lorenzo should be here any minute. Of course, the moment people saw you, the media jumped on it, but Lorenzo got dibbs and he's the only person who's actually got film of you."

That's actually quite cool, and I reflect it in my expression.

"I know right? His first broadcast and it's already got a feature of you. I'd show you the rough cut on my phone, but they're banned in here. Probably a good idea."

"Oh" I manage to sigh, before my throat feels dry again and I raise my wing to take in some more water.

Nurse Joy pipes up.

"Bianca, do you look after him the most then?"

I'm drinking, so I don't mind her butting in. Besides, she's just being nice.

"Well, yeah..." is her sheepish reply. Nurse Joy responds with admiration in her voice.

"That's no mean feat! And you're so young! They respect you a lot, I can tell! Hmmm... They must eat a lot"

"Well, yeah. I actually only feed them twice a day, sometimes three. But err.. I DO let them catch their own food as well?" Bianca replies and I realise why her voice sounds strained at the end.

Nurse Joy spends her entire day fixing pokemon up, so the last thing she'll want to hear is that I go out and kill them.

Nurse Joy doesn't shout or even scold her though.

"That's good! I don't say that to most people, but he must be very high maintenance and the pokemart stuff just won't have the things in that he needs"

I've finished my drink, but it'd be nice if I wasn't fully on my back. Actually, I'd be nice if I wasn't restrained. And I'm awake now, so can't I go and see Latias?

I move my wings and back around so Bianca looks at me.

"Oh no, you're staying where you are. We can't have you loose around the hospital, and besides, you can't fly without your psychic anyway."

Nurse Joy mumbles in astonishment as I fume over my situation.

"You even restrain him too... Wow... "

Yeah she restrains me. Too much. Although she has a point. I can't seem to fly or do anything psychic. I try reading Bianca's aura, but it's like my psychic muscle has stopped working.

"WHY CANT I FLY? BIANCA? BIANCA!? WHY?" I shout it as I begin to panic. If I can't use psychic, then I'm essentially useless. I can't move around or anything, and Latias will never be my mate if I can't even move, and...

Bianca rests her arm on my wing to calm me down, and it works. To an extent. And by extent, I mean I stop shouting.

"Calm... Calm down. You're fine. Cool. Listen. You're okay. But to get all the poison out of you we had to give you some really powerful medicine. It's shaken you up really badly, but your psychic will come back. It's a temporary side effect... Nurse Joy?"

Nurse Joy appears to have run across to the other side of the room by the sound of her voice. Clearly my outburst scared her.

"Oh.. Er.. Yes... Latios? You'll be fine. Now you're awake, I'd say your psychic will return within the hour. Two at the most"

I guess that's okay.

"I'm sorry for shouting." I apologise to both females and... Wait... Poison?

"Poison. Poison?" I ask Bianca, but she doesn't understand.

"No, not just yet. There's a test though that can check if your psychic works so if-"

I don't normally interrupt Bianca, but I think now is an acceptable time. If poison is involved, I NEED to know that Latias is okay.

"Bianca?! POISON? WHAT POISON? IS LATIAS OKAY?"

It's at this moment that the door behind Bianca clicks open and Lorenzo walks in.

"Latios! You're awake!"

Yeah, whoopee.

"Lorenzo. Poison. Explain." I've found that humans are more likely to interpret one-word sentences. But Lorenzo doesn't get it either.

"Yes I know, glad to see you too!"

This is hopeless. And if they won't tell me about Latias, or take me to her I'm going to find my own way to her. Wiggling across the floor if I have to.

I try to actively fight the things that are holding me down, but it doesn't work. Nurse Joy yet again backs away and Lorenzo leans forward to try and give me a scratch behind the ears, presumably to calm me down. Well I'm not being calmed down. Not unless they free me or wheel me in to Latias.

I dodge his hand and hiss at him.

I've only hissed at him three times. Once because he was hurting Latias, once because he was hurting me and another time because I'd just flown into a wall and I was angry with everything because of it. Needless to say, I don't hiss often. But when I do this time, a look of sadness flashes across Lorenzo's face.

I know why. It's because he's spent all his time and effort looking after me and even though he's only trying to do that now, I'm being nasty. I feel sorry for him, I really do, but I NEED to know Latias is safe.

Even though nurse Joy is backed up against the wall terrified, Lorenzo still speaks to me in a calm manner.

"Hey, look. There's no need for that. Listen. Latios. This is going to sound a bit odd, but... Do you know who brought you here? Because it wasn't me. Or Bianca. I'm too old, and Bianca's too weak."

I stop fighting the straps that I can now feel are holding me down. It's a good point, after all, if a bit of an odd question. I tilt my head too to show interest. He said it like he knows the answer.

"It was the gardevoir you and Latias attacked when she went near me. She used all her psychic energy lifting you here. And then when she fainted, Bianca had to lift you with the help of one of her friends, called Amy? You remeber her?"

Indeed I do, though I can't really care. What good is knowing how I got here going to do when I want to know how Latias is... Hang on...

I'm the only one who can lift Latias, she's too heavy for humans. She's lighter than me, yes, but if green was fainted after lifting me then humans would have had to carry her across town, which is almost impossible.

"How did Latias get here?" I ask him, half growling. The growl isn't intended, but I'm so hyped up it works its way in there without me meaning to. It always does if I'm not sure about where Latias is, or I'm worried about her. Like I am now. Because if I couldn't have taken her, and neither could anyone else, then it must mean she isn't here. And if she isn't here... Where is she?

"There was a reason I asked you if you knew. It's because, no matter what happens, you will always have friends and family to help you and for you to protect. Even if you attack and hiss at us, we'll always be there for you"

I have a feeling I'm going to receive some very bad news, but I hold back my anger and just do the deepest, meanest growl I can. It doesn't phase Lorenzo though.

"So now I'm going to ask you the big one, but keep in mind what I've just said. Do you even remeber why you're here?"

No. I can't. The thing I remeber me last doing was tucking into some really tasty fish. I shake my head. Still growling. If Latias is in danger... Well...

"I'm going to say one word, you'll remeber, but promise you'll stay calm. Remeber what I said about always having friends here."

In this situation, I can't promise anything. I stare at him, neither nodding or shaking. Just a low growl. He's going to have to tell me sooner or later, and in his interests, if it's bad news, it better be while I'm tied down.

He takes a breath in and holds it, considering what to say. Then he says it.

"Cassedy"

Cassedy... That was the name of the woman... Who...

BIANCA'S MOTHER! What she changed her name to! The one who was with team Rocket with Jay's dad, and said she poisoned the fish, which is why I'm here, because I ate all the fish, and Latias didn't get any because I ate it all, and... And...

My mind blocks what happens next from me, but after a few moments of concentration, the scene returns in vivid color.

_"Well, loosers, we'd take both your pokemon, but our ride home only has room for one ... And you'll do nicely"._  
_Then raises the gun. Latias goes low on the floor of the cage and growls. Cassedy points the gun at her. Then pulls the trigger._

Cassedy shot Latias.

* * *

"With me! NOW!" Nurse Joy shouted over to Bianca and Lorenzo, pointing to a door directly behind the operating table, out of Latios' view.

On the table, Latios was growling, hissing and spitting, beyond reason and fueled by pure rage, desperately trying to break free from the restraints. Judging by the noise they were making, he was winning.

Bianca made it through the door first, but Lorenzo was taking forever. It wasn't fair on the old man, he'd only said what the doctor told him to. It wasn't fair on Latios, all he wanted was a mate. It wasn't fair on the artist girl, she just wanted to enjoy time with her legendary family. Nothing was fair, nurse Joy reflected as she held the door open for Lorenzo. Who eventually made it.

The moment Lorenzo was over the threshold, nurse Joy jumped through too and slammed the door shut, before pressing a red button on the wall where the door was mounted.

With a reassuring mechanical 'thunk', the door slammed shut and locked.

The room they were in was small, with two doors opposite each other. The one they just came through had warning labels on it and at the moment was lit red all the way around, and looked sturdy. The other was a lot more boring, with just a sign reminding people to wash their hands after being in the operating theatre.

Other than the doors, a sink and a few chairs, the room was empty, not a desk or any kind of work surface. Bianca glanced at a sign which identified the room as "Operation Observation and Control", but failed to see a way to observe or control the operating theater in the practically empty room.

That observation was just a distraction, of course, for the fact that one of her best friends was missing and the other one had seemingly gone in to a barbaric rage. If she lost her nerve now, she'd never get it back.

Shaking with adrenaline, Nurse Joy turned to face a worried Bianca and an out of breath Lorenzo.

"Right. You two. I need the whole truth from now on. I didn't ask before, because I didn't want to intrude, but anything I ask now, I NEED to know. In this room, we're on our own."

Bianca nodded as Lorenzo doubled over to catch his breath. Other than the sound of Lorenzo hyperventilating, the room was quiet, cut off from the roaring dragon by 2 inch thick steel.

"Right. First, you. Bianca." Bianca stared the Nurse in the eyes.

"Did Latios ever show any attraction to you?". Joy said it with hope in her voice.

"No. I mean, yeah we were friends. But nothing intimate, No."

"Right. Are you sure? Did he ever give you gifts or anything?"

Bianca knew what Nurse Joy was talking about, and immidiatly set the record.

"No, he reserved that kind of thing for Latias. Smelly, shiny stuff. And food. That all went to Latias. Well, 19 out of 20 times"

"Great". The sentiment was entirely sarcastic. "If he saw you as a mate you could talk to him and calm him down, but since he didn't, it'll only make him angry now..." She mulled to herself, before speaking up again, with renewed optimism. Optimism being relative here, in the same why a man being hit by a truck would be considered an optimist for saying 'Look, I've still got one arm left! It's not all bad!'

"Latios and Latias. What was their relationship? We know they're brother as sister, but what about mates?"

Bianca shook her head.

"No. Well, if they were, they didn't show off about it or anything. They must have been deliberately hiding it if they were."

"Well, they can be very sneaky" prompted nurse Joy, trying to at least get something useful from the teenager. The man didn't appear to be in any state to help. At least if he was going to have a heart attack, he was in the right place to do it.

Bianca decided to elaborate.

"Well, they weren't mating. We'd know that. But over the last few days Latios had started getting very... Err... How do I say this? Attentative? Protective? Of her."

Nurse Joy knew what Bianca meant. It was typical of every male. They'd show off in an attempt to win a mate, and be really protective the rest of the time, refusing to let their prospect get hurt.

"Was Latias in heat when..."

"Yes. Definately. She was doing the things that she does; constantly grooming Him - or anything really-, being really affectionate... That kind of thing"

"Well, you know her better than me. But this makes things difficult..."

Bianca didn't want to ask, but I she had to. Nurse Joy had already turned around and was looking at an apparently blank wall, searching for something on it.

"Why?"

Nurse Joy found the hidden button and pressed it, responding to Bianca's question as various tables and monitors started to fold out of the wall, previously disguised as parts of the wall.

"Well, if Latios considered Latias as a mate, in his mind, she is his already. It's a protective thing. So he'll already be ready to kill to protect her. But as she was in heat, her pheromones will have driven him crazy. Not CRAZY crazy, but really, really dedicated to her. Odds are he'll stop at nothing to find her now."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

One final panel of the wall was sliding open, and nurse Joy turned to look at Bianca.

"Not if you're in his way."

Joy turned back and looked through the newly retracted panel, as did Bianca.

The panel was set into the same wall as the door, and was constructed from 2.5 inches of Lead-Laced Acrylic-Polyvynalchloronate composite. It was virtually unbreakable, radiation proof and could survive pressure differences of up to two thousand times the weight of a waillord. To Bianca, it didn't seem enough.

Behind the glass, she could see the operating theater, or more accurately, Latios tied to the table in the operating theater.

In between them escaping and the panel revealing him, he'd freed the wing that was operating the machine that was giving him water, and using it, had managed to fling the water machine into the wall. The machine wasn't so much wrecked as it was non-existant. Latios had thrown it so hard that it'd broken into tens of thousands of parts, most of them smaller than a fingernail.

Nurse Joy was speaking into a microphone that was snaking out of the console underneath the window.

"CODE 2, CODE 2, ALL STAFF. EVACUATE TRANS ROUTE FROM OP A1 TO SKYLAND A AND OPEN. REPEAT, EVACUATE DIRECT ROUTE FROM OP A1 TO SKYLAND A, AND OPEN SKYLAND A. PRIORITY 2, EXECUTION DEADLINE 20 SECONDS MARK."

Nurse Joy stopped speaking and started pressing buttons on the console, making a series of alarms ring out. In the room, the light switched from a pure white, to a dark red. She explained to Bianca as well, she was his owner after all. It must be killing her to see him like this.

"Stay here, don't go anywhere. I'm moving everyone out of his way, because when he does break out, he'll destroy everything if there's not a clear path outside. He won't like being indoors, so he'll take the shortest route to the outside. Which is up."

A few more button presses, and all but one light in the operating theater went out. The light was a single red one that barely illuminated the table, but it let nurse Joy know what was going on.

"I've switched off the lights so the moment we open the path to the roof, which will be lit, he'll take that."

Bianca had to admit, nurse Joy was smarter than she thourght. Much smarter.

But intelligence wasn't going to help them against raw power.

With a snapping noise, the belts holding down Latios' midsection snapped, the sound of rending metal inaudible to the isolated observers, but painfully loud to Latios, the noise only aggrevating him more.

Nurse Joy cursed under her breath as the final strap around the dragon's right wing tore, releasing him.

"His psychic doesn't work yet though, right?"

Nurse Joy snapped under the pressure and shouted back at Bianca.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK?". She waved her hand manically at the window, which provided an accurate answer.

Latios had indeed got his psychic back, and had started to fly in circles around the operating room, getting faster and faster. By the look of his mouth, he was growling, and his eyes were twisted, intensity focused on the circle he was flying in.

"I NEED THAT ROUTE CLEARED NOW!" Nurse Joy yelled into her microphone, before loosing her patience for the second time at the lack of a response.

In frustration and fear for her own safety she pushed another button on the console.

In the operation theater, Latios noticed a red light above the door he could see while he was laid down, and briefly thourght it was Latias. It was just a normal light though, with some English over the top.

He looked away and continued to fly around the room, faster and faster. His plan was simple. Fly so fast that he broke the speed of sound, which would hopefully break something and allow him out to find Latias. Failing that, he would hyper beam the roof until it melted, then fly out of that. Judging by his heat-vision, the roof was made of steel and lead. But even steel has a melting point.

In the control room, the Nurse pressed three more buttons at the same time.

One opened the door out of the operating theater One switched off the lights in the corridor outside. And the final one opened the skyland - the nickname for a big hole in the roof that allowed them to lower large pokemon in and directly onto the hospital, ready to be operated on.

Mercifully, the now-dark corridor was clear, and in the middle of it, a beam of light being cast from above was beginning to widen. The skyland was opening.

Just as he was about to reach the speed of sound, Latios noticed the beam of light on the floor in the corridor. Judging by the brightness and the color, it could only be sunlight.

He completed another loop, then accelerated towards the light and into the corridor, also breaking the sound barrier in the process. With a bang, every window on the east side of the pokemon centre blew open and shattered, as the enraged dragon shot down the main hallway faster then a bullet. Only the observation window stayed intact.

Latios reached the shaft of light and looked up.

It appeared that the roof was splitting apart above him, probably by some mechanical thing. Whatever was doing it, it was a way out into the open world. Without another hesitation, he took it. He didn't care how long it took him, how far he would have to go. He was going to find Latias. Find her or die trying.

* * *

Yeah, guess who was depressed with society and it's segregation of minorities at the time of writing?

And sorry, An7! But an authors gotta do what an authors gotta do, which is, in this instance, introduce a dramatic and seemingly irreversible event that the protagonist is capable of preventing, but unable to, thereby causing emotional trauma, whereby said protagonist can take many options, from slaying everything in its path, to collapsing in a puddle of saline on the floor. It worked for the hunger games. Trust me. Cast your bets on what you think I've done, in the reviews. Until Sunday (GMT), PEACE!


	37. AFTERWORD

Don't worry, that isn't the end of the story. Well, it is. But it's also the start of a new one, which if you want to read is called "Home" and the first chapter is out now. I've turned it into a different book because it's, well... About a bazillion times better. So check it out, and tell your friends. Yes, there's even Lati-shipping, but also action and badassery of an untold scale. If you'd prefer to avoid the badassery and carry on with this story like nothing bad ever happened I've also put out another story, called 'Day to Day'. Both can be accessed on my profile **NOW**!

_#smiley face#_

* * *

And now, **The Afterword**:

Well... Here we are... Wow... Look at all of you. You've aged since the first chapter, Since I uploaded it. Gee, That was, what, five months ago?

I'd just like to thank everyone who read this first. This was never meant to be a long story. It was just something for me to do in my spare time. But as time went on, well. I enjoyed it more than more. In fact, its been nearly two-thirds of a year since I started it. A lot has happened during that time, but mainly, my writing has improved tenfold. I just went back to read the first chapter - It was so... terrible... I thought a child might have written it instead.

More than that has changed. In the time I've written this story, I've also:  
- Climbed 3 mountains in 24 hours,  
- Gone through two jobs,  
- Seen my parents divorce,  
- Won programming awards,  
- Written out 280,000 words and 400,000 lines of code,  
- Survived 21-12-12 (lol)  
- Been classed as severely underweight,  
- Generated over 2.6 Terrebytes of computer data

But most importantly, I've  
- **Gained fans. Like you.**

**Yep. You.**

So this afterword is for you, and all the people who made me who I am. The person who put up with the crappy bit at the start (Which, lets be honest. It was). Well, I'd like to say thanks. You guys have all pushed me through this, given your support and reminded me that whatever you think you can achieve, you can if you put the right amount of effort in.

I'd like to extend a round of applause to all those who reviewed:

# An7 - This guy is ace. Not afraid to be honest, and is more on the ball than a seal in a circus  
# nethowin - One Word. Encouragement.  
# PikaMewGirl - Living proof that my language perhaps wasn't as bad as I thought  
# Cheep the Hedgehog, The Silent Insomniac, david davidson, and then there's - AWww s**t there's just so many of you guys. You've all been great!

LAST MINUTE EDIT: Well done to OBITEN for sitting thhrough the story for more than an hour, non stop, and reviewing every single chapter... just wow!

Thanks to latiasfan1 for encouraging and inspiring me in the first place. Look out for him in one of my future stories :)

I'd say that it's a bit like a magikarp turning into a gryados: If you can't put up with me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best. But that just isn't true, because if you think one bit is not so good, you can say why in the reviews and skip it. The next book (the squeal to this) I've written is the gryados in this case. Which makes this story the magikarp (seriously, I can't emphasize enough how much better the squeal is.). And the squeal to that is so epic, every time I think how epic it is, I can't actually type the woraghfjs askasf pagpw[we -03eref8 we0gm,. n...

This story was generated mostly by my subconscious in a hospital bed in Doncaster. As you can probably guess, it's never been put right. Even though none of the people are reading this, I'd like to thank the medical team at Doncaster hospital in the young persons ward for helping me through that tough time, and dealing with the tonne of s**t I put you through, especially the hallucination-prompted screaming fits. (This was before electronic staff-patient management systems were put in, I can't trace them at all.). Without you guys, I wouldn't be here today.

Andy - my boss - will no doubt be reading this. HE is, after all, my security check, so it is his job. Thanks for putting up with this Andy, and not telling me to stop. You'd think that in the adult world of jet-engine building, story writing wouldn't be a priority, but you let me nontheless. Perhaps I can butter you up so I can write a lemon. Not 'butter up' in a sexual manor. Hahaha... _Please don't make me censor that bit_.

I'd like to thank the makers of Jota Text Editor for Android. This isn't an advertisement, but man would I endorse them. Without that app, this story wouldn't exist. I've used it every day to write out the chapters, so I think they deserve a mention.

I wanted to make this story move you. Not latterly on a 3D space plane. But emotionally move you. Make you laugh, cry, and long for the characters. Want to be them. Immersed. If I haven't done that, let me know what would have made that happen. Because if I haven't, my work isn't the best, and I wont settle for anything worse than perfection. If you weren't at least a bit sad at the end of chapter 24, I'm not doing as well as I should.

So, finally. I'd just like to ask every single one of you (even if you don't have a fanfiction login, you can do this without one), to click that little button that says review, and give me a few honest words on the good, the bad, and the ugly, of this story. Thank you, and I'll see you at 'Home'

* * *

'Home' is available to read on on my profile now, as well as a sample chapter of 'Day to Day', the story after 'Home', in case you don't like action, but still want to stay in the loop.

Follow as you like :)

_TheModerator


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